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tianibfr0it^  of  ^icljigan  ^pubUcation0 

HUMANISTIC  PAPERS 


LATIN   AND  GREEK   IN   AMERICAN 
EDUCATION 


THE  MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

NEW  YORK    •    HOSTON    •    CHICAGO 
ATLANTA   •    SAN    FRAN'CISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •  BOMBAY  •  CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


LATIN  AND  GREEK 

IN 

AMERICAN  EDUCATION 

WITH  SYMPOSIA  ON 

THE  VALUE  OF  HUMANISTIC 

STUDIES 


EDITED  BY 

FRANCIS  W.  KELSEY 


NEW   YORK 
THE   MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

LONDON:    MACMILLAN    &    COMPANY,    LIMITED 
I  9  I  I 

ALL     RIGHTS     RESERVBH 


Copyright,    191  i 
By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 


All  Rights  Reserved 


Composed  and  Printed  By 

The  University  of  Chicago  Press 

Chicago,  Illinois,  U.S.A. 


SA2\TA  LjiliBARA 


PREFACE 

The  papers  which  are  brought  together  in  this  volume 
have  been  pubhshed  in  the  School  Review  or  the  Educa- 
tional Review  within  five  years.  The  number  of  requests 
for  reprints  of  the  articles  and  symposia  has  far  exceeded 
the  supply;  and  the  volume  is  put  forth  in  response  to  a 
suggestion  which  was  first  made  in  the  Classical  Weekly, 
and  afterward  reinforced  from  many  quarters. 

With  the  exception  of  the  first  three  chapters,  which 
grew  out  of  an  address  at  the  University  of  Kansas,  the 
papers  and  discussions  were  prepared  for  the  meetings  of 
the  Michigan  Classical  Conference  and  were  presented  on 
the  program  of  the  Conference  or  of  the  Michigan  School- 
masters' Club,  of  which  the  Classical  Conference  is  a 
section;  an  account  of  the  origin  and  earlier  activities 
of  the  Conference  is  given  in  the  School  Review  for  May, 
1905.  The  first  two  Symposia  formed  a  part  of  the  same 
program  of  the  Conference,  in  1906;  they  were  translated 
into  German  by  Professor  von  Arnim,  of  the  University 
of  Vienna,  and  published  in  1907  in  the  Mitteilungen  des 
Vereins  der  Freunde  des  humanistischen  Gymnasiums,  under 
the  title  "Der  Wert  des  Humanismus,  insbesondere  der 
klassischen  Studien  als  Vorbereitung  fiir  das  Studium  der 
Medizin  und  der  Ingenieurkunde  vom  Standpunkt  der 
Berufe."  All  the  papers  were  revised  for  the  volume  by 
the  writers  except  that  on  "The  Peculiar  Quality  of  Clas- 
sical Training,"  by  the  Honorable  Harlow  P.  Davock, 
who  died  in  1910. 

Hearty  thanks  are  due  to  the  contributors  to  the 
volume  for  their  cordial  co-operation  in  the  effort  to  set 


vi  Preface 

t'orth,  from  different  points  of  view,  the  just  claims  of 
classical  study;  to  the  Commissioner  and  Acting  Com- 
missioner of  Education  in  Washington  for  kind  assistance 
not  only  in  furnishing  statistics  yet  unpubhshed  but  in 
submitting  proofs  of  the  statistical  chapters  to  the  criti- 
cism of  an  expert  statistician ;  and  to  the  generous  donors 
to  the  fund  which  made  the  publication  of  the  volume 
possible,  Mr.  D.  M.  Ferry,  Jr.,  Mr.  Frederick  M. 
Alger,  Mr.  A.  C.  Bloomfield,  Dr.  J.  B.  Book,  Mr.  Lem 
W.  Bowen,  Mrs.  Theodore  D.  Buhl,  Mr.  F.  J.  Hecker,  Mr. 
J.  L.  Hudson,  Mr.  J.  C.  Hutchins,  Mr.  Clarence  A.  Light- 
ner,  :Mr.  Philip  H.  McMillan,  Mr.  W.  H.  Murphy,  Mr. 
John  R.  Russel,  Mr.  Walter  S.  Russel,  and  Mr.  Charles 
B.  Warren. 

Francis  W.  Kelsey 
Ann  Arbor,  Michigan 
April  lo,  1911 


CONTENTS 
CHAPTER  I 

PAGE 

The  Present  Position  of  Latin  and  Greek        ...         1 
Fr.\xcis  W.  Kelsey 

CHAPTER  II 

The   Value    of   Latin   and    Greek   as   Educational 

Instruments 17 

Fr.\xcis  W.  Kelsey 

CHAPTER  III 

Latin  and  Greek  in  Our  Courses  op  Study       ...       40 
Francis  W.  Kelsey 

CHAPTER  IV 

The  Nature  of  Culture  Studies 59 

R.  M.  Wenley,  University  of  Michigan 

SYMPOSIUM  I.     MEDICINE 

I.  The  Value  of  Greek  and  Latin  to  the  Medical 
Student 83 

Victor   C.    Vaughan,    University  of  Michigan 

II.  Discussion  of  Dr.  Vaughan's  Paper       ....       88 
Charles  B.  G.  de  Xaxcrede,  University  of  Michi- 
gan 

III.  The  Value  of  Hujianistic  Studies  as  a  Prepara- 
tion FOR  THE  Study  of  Medicine 90 

WiLBERT  B.  Hinsdale,  University  of  Michigan 

.    SYMPOSIUM  II.    ENGINEERING 

I.  The  Place  of  the  Humanities  in  the  Training  of 

Engineers 99 

Herbert  C.  Sadler,  University  of  Michigan 

vii 


viii  Contents 

I'  A  <i  K 

II.  DtscussiON  OF  Professor  Sadler's  Paper    .      .     .     109 
CJkorgk  W.  Pattkrson,  I'niversity  of  Michigan 

III.  The  Demands  of  Modern  Engineering  in  Their 

Be.\ring  upon  Choice  of  Preliminary  Studies      .     112 
Gardner  S.  Williams,  University  of  Michigan 

I\'.   A    Current    View    of    Collegiate    Education, 

Formulated  in  Propositions 120 

Jo.sEPH  B.  Davis,  University  of  Michigan 

SYMPOSIUM  III.    LAW 

I.  The  Value  to  the  Lawyer  of  Training  in  the 

Classics 121 

Merritt  Starr,  of  the  Chicago  Bar 

II.  The  Study  of  Greek  and  Latin  as  a  Preparation 

for  the  Study  of  L.\w 130 

Lyndex  Evans,  of  the  Chicago  Bar 

III.  The  Ancient  Classics  as  a  Preparation  for  the 

Study  of  Law 138 

H.  B.  Hutchins,  University  of  Michigan 

I\'.   The  Peculiar  Quality  of  Classical  Training      .     146 
Harlow  P.  Davock,  of  the  Detroit  Bar 

\.   Greek  and  Latin  in  Retrospect 150 

HiNTON  E.  Spalding,  of  the  Detroit  Bar 

VI.   Concluding  Remarks 153 

Levi  L.  Barbour,  of  the  Detroit  Bar 

SYMPOSIUM  IV.    THEOLOGY 

I.  The  Place  of  Greek  and  Latin  in  the  Prepara- 
tion FOR  the  Ministry 154 

William  Douglas  Mackenzie,  Hartford  Theologi- 
cal Seminary 

II.  The  Value  to  the  Clergyman  of  Training  in  the 

Classics 171 

Rev.  a.  J.  Nock,  St.  Joseph's  Church,  Detroit 

III.  Short  Cuts  to  the  Ministry,  with  Especial  Ref- 
erence TO  the  Elimin.\tion  of  Latin  and  Greek 

from  Theological  Educ.\tion 179 

Hugh  Black,  Union  Theological  Seminary 


Contents  ix 

PAGE 

IV.   Greek  in  the  High  School  and  the  Question  of 

THE  Supply  of  Candidates  for  the  Ministry  .      .     186 
Francis  W.  Kelsey 

V.   Concluding  Remarks 208 

James  B.  Angell,  University  of  Michigan 

SYMPOSIUM  V.     PRACTICAL  AFFAIRS 

I.  Letters 210 

1.  James  Bryce,  Ambassador  of  Great  Britain     210 

2.  James  Loeb   (Formerly  of  Kuhn,   Loeb  & 
Co.),  New  York 211 

3.  William   Sloaxe,    President   of   W.    &   J. 
Sloane,  New  York 217 

II.  The  Study  of  the  Classics  as  a  Training  for  Men 

of  Affairs .     219 

John  W.  Foster,  Washington,  D.C. 

III.  The  Study  of  Latin  and  Greek  as  a  Training  for 

Practical  Life 226 

Charles  R.  Williams,  Editor  of  the  Indianapolis 
News 

n'.   The  Value  of  the  Study  of  Greek  and  Latin  as 

A  Preparation  for  the  Study  of  Science    .  238 

Harvey  W.  Wiley,  Washington,  D.C. 

V.  The  Classics  and  Modern  Life 255 

James  Brown  Scott,  Washington,  D.C. 

SYMPOSIUM  VI.    THE  NEW  EDUCATION 

I.  The  Classics  in  European  Education    ....     260 
Edward  Kennard  Rand,  Harvard  Universitj^ 

II.  The  Classics  and  the  Elective  System       .      .  283 

R.  M.  Wenley,  University  of  Michigan 

III.  The  Case  for  the  Classics 303 

Paul  Shorey,  the  University  of  Chicago 

SYMPOSIUM  VII.    FORMAL  DISCIPLINE 

I.  The  Doctrine  of  Formal  Discipline  in  the  Light 
of  the  Principles  of  General  Psychology   .  344 

James  Rowland  Angell,  the  University  of  Chicago 


X  Contents 

II.    Thk  l''FKErrs  of  Tkaining  on  Memory  .      .361 

\V.  15.  I'lLLsHTKY,  University  of  Michigan 

III.  Thk  Hki.atiox  of  Si>eci.\l  Tr.\ining  to  General 

Intei,i,ic;ence 37H 

CiiAKLKs  H.  Ji  DD,  the  University  of  Chicago 


CHAPTER  I 
THE  PRESENT  POSITION  OF  LATIN  AND  GREEK 

The  heat  of  the  strife  over  the  position  of  the  ancient 
classics  in  our  curricula  has  died  away.  Only  rarely 
nowadays  does  either  the  advocate  or  the  opponent  of 
the  study  of  Latin  and  Greek  indulge  in  polemics.  The 
latter  is  satisfied  because  he  knows  that  in  most  schools 
and  colleges  the  student  has  no  reason  to  take  instruction 
in  Latin  unless  he  elects  the  study  of  his  own  free  choice, 
and  that  in  the  great  majority  of  public  high  schools,  now 
more  than  10,000  in  number,  no  opportunity  is  affofded 
to  study  Greek  even  if  the  pupil  desires  to  do  so;  and 
the  friends  of  the  classics,  engaged  meanwhile  in  adjust- 
ing themselves  so  far  as  may  be  to  the  new  conditions, 
have  observed  that  the  questions  relating  to  the  status 
of  Greek  and  Latin  are,  for  the  most  part,  merely  phases 
of  a  much  broader  problem,  which  has  to  do  not  only 
with  the  determination  of  educational  values  but  also 
with  the  adjustment  of  the  limits  of  prescription  and 
election  of  studies.  The  chaotic  condition  of  the  courses 
in  many  of  the  larger  institutions  of  secondary  as  well  as 
of  collegiate  rank  must  eventually,  for  administrative 
if  not  for  educational  reasons,  give  place  to  a  more  sys- 
tematic grouping  of  subjects;  and  a  general  movement 
in  that  direction  has  already  begun.  The  time  has  come 
for  the  fresh  consideration  of  course-making  along  con- 
structive, lines;  we  are  justified,  therefore,  in  entering 
upon  an  inquiry  as  to  the  place  which  Latin  and  Greek 
now  have,  and  should  have,  in  our  courses  of  study. 

The  statistics  giving  the  enrolment  of  students  in  the 


2  Latin  and  Greek 

studies  of  secondary  schools,  which  have  been  published 
in  the  Reports  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education  since 
1890,  have  been  much  discussed  and  variously  inter- 
preted. Whatever  may  be  the  difficulty  of  drawing  from 
them  correct  inferences  in  regard  to  matters  of  detail, 
it  is  safe  to  use  them  as  a  gauge  or  register  of  general 
tendencies;  but  before  presenting  the  figures  showing  the 
enrolment  in  Latin  and  Greek  it  will  be  necessary  to  take 
account  of  the  statistics  of  attendance. 

In  1889-90  the  total  attendance  in  public  and  private 
high  schools  and  academies  in  the  United  States  was 
reported  as  297,894;  fourteen  years  later,  1903-4,  it  had 
reached  the  surprising  number  of  739,215.^  While  the 
population  of  the  country  in  this  period  increased  about 
28  per  cent,  the  attendance  of  the  secondary  schools  was 
more  than  doubled.  The  rate  of  increase,  however,  was 
not  the  same  in  the  two  classes  of  schools.  In  1889-90 
202,963  students  were  enrolled  in  2,526  public  high  schools, 
and  there  were  94,931  students  in  1632  private  high 
schools  and  academies;  in  1903-4,  the  pubhc  high 
schools  numbered  7,230,  their  students  635,808,  while 
the  other  secondary  schools  were  only  1,606  in  number, 
with  103,407  students.     The  rate  of  increase  in  the  enrol- 

'  In  the  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education  for  1908-9  the 
total  enrolment  of  secondary  students  in  the  United  States  is  given  as 
1,034,827;  in  1909-10,  the  number  1,131,466  was  reported.  In  this  num- 
ber are  included  students  in  "public  high  schools,  public  normal  schools, 
public  universities  and  colleges,"  "private"  high  schools,  normal  schools, 
universities  and  colleges,  "private  colleges  for  women,"  and  manual- 
training  schools.  "While  the  number  of  secondary  students  in  the 
preparatory  departments  of  colleges  and  other  institutions  is  given," 
says  the  Report  for  1904  (Vol.  II,  p.  1729),  "it  has  been  found  imprac- 
ticable to  collect  complete  statistics  of  such  departments."  For  this 
reason  statistics  showing  the  number  of  secondary  students  enrolled 
in  various  studies  are  limited  to  the  public  and  private  high  schools  and 
academies.  In  1908-9  the  students  enrolled  in  public  and  private  high 
schools  and  academies  numbered  934,929. 


Present  Position  3 

merit  of  students  in  the  private  high  schools  and  academies 
fell  considerably  below  the  rate  of  increase  of  population; 
but  there  were  more  than  three  times  as  many  students 
in  public  high  schools  in  1903-4  as  there  were  in  1889-90. 

In  1909-10  the  total  attendance  in  public  and  private 
high  schools  and  academies  was  1,032,461;^  915,061 
(398,525  boys  and  516,536  girls)  in  10,213  pubhc  high 
schools,  and  117,400  (55,474  boys  and  61,926  girls)  in 
1,781  schools  of  private  support.  In  the  decade  1900  to 
1910  the  population  of  the  continental  United  States 
increased  about  21  per  cent;  the  enrolment  in  public 
high  schools  more  than  60  per  cent.  The  enrolment 
reported  in  public  high  schools  in  1909-10  was  more  than 
four  and  one-half  times  as  great  as  that  reported  twenty- 
one  years  earlier,  in  1889-90. 

The  phenomenal  growth  of  the  public  high  schools  is 
significant  from  several  points  of  view.  The  causes  to 
which  it  is  due  cannot  even  be  enumerated  here;  but  of 
immediate  bearing  upon  our  subject  is  the  consequence 
that  the  drain  upon  the  resources  of  taxpayers  occa- 
sioned by  the  necessity  of  providing  buildings,  equip- 
ment, and  instruction  to  meet  unanticipated  demands 
has  been  so  great  as  to  retard  the  normal  increase  in  the 
compensation  of  teachers,  which  should  keep  pace  with 
the  increase  in  the  cost  of  living  and  of  professional 
preparation.  The  inadequacy  of  compensation  has 
driven  from  the  high  schools  many  of  the  strongest  men 
on  the  staff  of  instruction,  who  have  been  forced  to 
abandon  teaching  for  less  congenial  but  more  lucrative 
pursuits;  and  it  tends  to  deter  young  men  of  promise 
from  entering  the  profession. 

>  The  writer  is  indebted  to  Mr.  Elmer  E.  Brown,  Commissioner  of 
Education,  and  to  Mr.  L.  A.  Kalbach,  Acting  Commissioner,  for  these 
and  other  statistics  kindly  furnished  in  advance  of  publication. 


4  Latin  and  Greek 

Tlie  enrolment  of  .students  in  Latin  in  the  secondary 
schooLs  of  the  United  States  in  1889-90  was  100,144,  or 
33.02  per  cent  of  the  attendance;  in  1898-99  the  num- 
ber had  risen  to  291,695,  or  50.29  per  cent;  in  1903-4 
to  3(59,329,  or  49.96  per  cent;  in  1909-10  to  405,  502,  or 
49.59  per  cent  of  the  attendance  in  the  schools  reporting 
enrolment  by  studies.'  In  1889-90,  then,  one  .student  in 
three  was  studying  Latin;  from  1898  to  1906  about  one- 
half  of  all  the  students  were  enrolled  in  Latin  classes. 
But  here  again  there  is  a  line  of  cleavage  between  the 
public  high  schools  and  the  private  high  schools  and 
academies.  Up  to  1905-6  the  proportion  of  the  students 
who  took  Latin  was  slightly  lower  in  the  latter  than  in 
the  former;  the  Latin  students  in  the  public  high  schools 
from  1898  to  1906  averaged  more  than  50  per  cent  of 
the  entire  attendance.  In  1903-4,  46,301  students  were 
enrolled  in  Latin  in  the  private  high  schools  and  academies, 
less  than  one-half  of  the  number  being  girls;  in  the  public 
high  schools  323,028  were  enrolled,  of  whom,  in  round 
numbers,  198,000  were  girls  and  125,000  boys.  For 
the  three  years  1906-7,  1907-8,  and  1908-9  data  relating 
to  the  enrolment  in  secondarj^  .studies  were  not  collected. 
In  1909-10,  362,548  students  (147,598  boys  and  214,950 
girls)  were  reported  as  studying  Latin  in  the  public  high 
schools,  and  42,954  (20,976  boys  and  21,978  girls)  in  the 
private  schools. 

A  relatively  large  enrolment  in  Latin  in  private  high 
schools  and  academies  might  have  been  anticipated, 
because  the  work  of  these  institutions  as  a  class  is  definitely 

'  The  number  of  public  high  schools  reporting  enrolment  by  studies 
in  1909-10  was  8,097;  of  private  high  schools,  1,281.  Of  these,  7,298 
public  high  schools  and  1,191  private  schools  reported  students  in  Latin; 
only  35.3  public  high  schools  and  413  private  high  schools  and  academies 
reported  students  in  Greek. 


Present  Position  5 

specialized  in  the  direction  of  preparation  for  college,  and 
the  college-entrance  requirements  have  generally  made 
Latin  a  leading  subject.  The  large  enrolment  in  Latin 
in  the  public  high  schools  is  not  so  easily  explained. 

In  the  central  and  western  states  the  majority  of  the 
public  high  schools  have  from  the  beginning  aimed  to 
give  preparation  for  college;  and  as  high-school  systems 
were  developed  in  the  Atlantic  states  they  too  shaped 
their  courses  in  conformity  with  college-entrance  require- 
ments. Nevertheless  in  1889-90  only  14.44  per  cent 
of  the  students  in  this  class  of  schools  were  recorded  as 
preparing  for  college,  and  in  1903-4  the  proportion  was 
less  than  10  per  cent,  while  in  other  secondary  schools 
between  a  fourth  and  a  third  of  the  boys  and  about  one- 
eighth  of  the  girls  were  enrolled  in  preparatory  courses ;  in 
1908-9  less  than  7  per  cent  of  the  students  in  the  public 
high  schools  were  preparing  for  college.  The  enrolment 
in  Latin  in  the  public  high  schools  has  beyond  doubt  been 
greatly  influenced  by  the  prominence  of  this  subject  as  a 
college-entrance  requirement;  even  in  schools  in  which 
the  percentage  of  preparatory  students  is  small,  the 
classical  preparatory  course,  though  more  diversified  than 
formerly,  presents  a  standard  of  attainments  attractive 
to  ambitious  students  who  do  not  look  forward  to  colle- 
giate work.  At  the  Michigan  Classical  Conference  in 
1906  Principal  F.  L.  Bliss  showed  that  the  falling  off  in 
the  number  of  students  of  Latin  in  certain  of  the  central 
states,  as  well  as  a  proportionately  greater  decline  in  the 
number  of  those  pursuing  the  subject  for  four  years,  was 
caused  chiefly  by  changes  in  the  entrance  requirements 
of  the  state  universities  and  colleges  in  those  states.^ 

'  Proceedings  of  the  Michigan  Schoolmasters'  Club,  fortj'-first  meet- 
ing (1906),  pp.  61-64. 


6  Latin  and  Greek 

The  influence  of  the  colleges,  however,  and  the  force 
of  educational  tradition  are  inadequate  to  account  for 
the  increase  in  the  enrolment  of  Latin  students  in  the 
public  high  schools  from  about  one  in  three  to  one  in 
two,  in  a  single  decade;  and  the  maintenance  of  the  higher 
percentage  as  an  average  for  a  number  of  years^  seems 
to  imply  that  the  increase  was  not  spasmodic  or  acci- 
dental, but  an  adjustment  to  a  normal  condition.  Since 
1890  there  has  been  an  unprecedented  expansion  of  high- 
school  courses  by  the  introduction  of  new  studies.  This 
has  been  accompanied  by  a  marked  increase  in  the  attract- 
iveness and  educational  effectiveness  of  several  subjects, 
particularly  in  science,  which  has  profited  by  the  build- 
ing and  equipment  of  laboratories;  it  has  been  accom- 
panied also  by  an  enlargement  of  the  student's  freedom 
of  choice,  not  merely  between  courses  but  between  studies, 
and  often  between  teachers.  Moreover,  in  the  past 
twenty  years  there  has  been  in  administrative  positions 
in  the  schools  a  greater  proportion  of  men  without  a 
classical  training  than  ever  before.  In  this  period, 
again,  there  has  been  no  articulate  popular  demand  for 
Latin;  on  the  contrary,  newspapers  and  magazines  at 
no  time  previously  gave  so  wide  a  circulation  to  com- 
ments and  articles  adverse  to  classical  studies.  That 
under  these  conditions  Latin  in  the  public  high  schools 
has  made  extraordinary  progress  in  the  enrolment  of 
■  students  is  explicable  only  in  the  light  of  the  fact  that 

'  In  1898-99,  50.39  per  cent  of  the  students  in  public  high  schools 
were  enrolled  in  Latin;  in  1899-1900,50.61  percent;  in  1900-1901,50.45 
per  cent;  in  1901-2,  50.07  per  cent;  in  1902-3,  50.31  per  cent;  in  1903- 
4,  50.81  per  cent;  in  1904-5,  50.21  per  cent;  in  1905-6,  50.24  per 
cent;  in  1909-10,  49.05  per  cent  in  the  schools  reporting  enrolment 
by  studies.  Whether  this  average  would  be  affected  by  returns  from 
all  the  high  schools  it  is  impossible  to  say.  It  is  unfortunate  that  the 
statistics  are  not  complete;  but  the  collection  of  such  data  from  so 
great  a  number  of  schools  is  difficult. 


Present  Position  7 

with  comparatively  few  exceptions  those  charged  with  the 
responsibility  of  administration  in  laying  out  courses  of 
study  and  in  advising  students  have  emphasized  the  value 
of  Latin  in  itself  as  an  educational  instrument,  quite 
apart  from  its  utility  in  securing  credits  to  apply  on 
admission  to  college. 

The  position  of  Greek  is  less  fortunate.  In  1889-90 
the  students  of  Greek  enrolled  in  secondary  schools 
numbered  12,869.  In  1897-98  the  number  had  almost 
doubled;  the  enrolment  was  24,994.  Since  1898  there 
has  been  a  decline;  in  1902-3  the  whole  number  was 
18,951,  in  1909-10  only  10,739. 

Here  also  we  must  consider  the  statistics  of  pubhc 
and  private  schools  separately.  In  the  former  in  1903-4 
there  were  11,158  students  of  Greek,  of  whom  about  one- 
half  were  girls;  in  private  secondary  schools  there  were 
7,289,  of  whom  only  1,512  were  girls;  the  number  of  boys, 
5,777,  studying  Greek  in  the  1,606  private  high  schools  and 
academies,  was  greater  than  that  in  the  7,230  public  high 
schools,  of  which  only  803  (about  11  per  cent  of  the  whole 
number)  reported  classes  in  Greek.  The  percentage  of 
students  of  Greek  in  private  schools  was  about  the  same 
in  1903-4  (7.05  per  cent  of  the  whole  attendance)  that 
it  was  in  1889-90  (7.02),  but  in  the  public  high  schools 
it  shows  a  decline  in  the  same  period  from  3 .  05  to  1 .  75 
per  cent  of  the  attendance.  The  percentage  of  students 
of  Greek  in  the  total  enrolment  in  both  classes  of  second- 
ary schools  in  1903-4  was  2.5;  only  one  student  in  every 
forty  was  studying  Greek. 

In  1909-10,  5,511  students  (3,079  boys  and  2,432  girls) 
were  enrolled  in  Greek  in  the  353  public  high  schools 
reporting  instruction  in  the  subject;  in  413  private  high 
schools   and   academies   5,228   students   in   Greek   were 


8  Latin  and  Greek 

reported,  of  whom  the  great  majority  (4,395)  were  boys, 
the  girls  numbering  only  833.  The  percentage  of 
students  in  Greek  in  the  private  schools  was  now 
6.61;  in  the  public  high  schools  it  had  dropped  to  three- 
fourths  of  1  per  cent.  In  the  latter,  students  in  Greek 
were  reported  by  only  one  school  in  twenty-two  of  the 
8,097  schools  reporting  enrolment  by  studies;  and  in 
these  schools,  having  a  total  enrolment  of  739,143,  only 
one  student  in  134  was  studying  Greek. 

The  situation  is  not,  however,  so  unfavorable  as  at 
first  glance  it  might  appear  to  be.  For,  although  the 
enrolment  in  Greek  has  fallen  far  behind  that  in  Latin, 
the  increase  from  12,869  students  in  1889-90  to  18,447 
in  1903-4  means  that  the  students  of  Greek  gained  in 
number  more  than  40  per  cent  while  the  population  of 
the  country  increased  only  28  per  cent;  and  the  largest 
percentage  of  increase  was  in  the  public  high  schools,  in 
which  students  of  Greek  in  1889-90  numbered  6,202,  in 
1903-4,  11,158.  In  the  private  secondary  schools  the 
percentage  of  the  whole  number  of  students  taking  Greek 
is  relatively  larger  because  some  of  these  are  under  the 
control  of  religious  denominations  and  lay  emphasis 
upon  the  study  of  Greek  from  the  theological  point  of 
view,  and  others  prepare  students  almost  exclusively  for 
colleges  that  exact  Greek  as  an  entrance  requirement. 
If  the  enrolment  in  Greek  the  country  over  had  continued 
to  increase  at  the  same  rate  as  in  Latin,  the  number  of 
students  of  Greek  in  1909-10  would  have  been  above 
50,000;  yet  the  prophecies  regarding  the  prompt  extinc- 
tion of  Greek,  particularly  in  the  public  high  schools, 
have  not  been  fulfilled. 

Not  many  decades  back  a  large  proportion,  if  not  the 
majority,  of  students  of  Latin  studied  Greek  also;    but 


Present  Position  9 

assuming  that  all  students  of  Greek  in  the  secondary 
schools  elect  Latin,  we  see  that  in  1889-90  of  Latin  stu- 
dents only  one  in  eight  was  studying  Greek,  in  1903-4 
only  one  in  twenty,  in  1909-10  only  one  in  thirty-eight. 
The  number  of  students  that  in  1909-10  were  electing 
elementary  Greek  in  preparatory  departments  of  colleges 
or  in  their  first  year  of  collegiate  study  is  probably  too 
small  to  affect  the  result  appreciably;  the  gradual  divorce 
between  the  two  ancient  classical  languages  in  our  second- 
ary education  is  one  of  the  most  noteworthy  phases  of 
its  recent  development.  Nevertheless,  it  is  not  necessary 
to  appeal  to  the  educational  experience  of  other  countries 
to  contribute  a  parallel  or  furnish  an  explanation;  the 
causes  are  not  far  to  seek. 

In  the  first  place,  the  one  profession  or  calling  for  which 
an  early  knowledge  of  Greek  is  reckoned  important  if 
not  indispensable,  the  Christian  ministry,  no  longer 
attracts  young  men  as  formerly,  and  does  not  now  exert 
so  powerful  an  influence  among  us  as  it  once  did  in  favor 
of  a  literary  education.  In  1889-90  only  7,013  students 
were  reported  in  the  theological  schools  of  the  country; 
in  1897-98  there  were  8,371,  but  in  1902  the  number  had 
fallen  back  to  7,343,  about  the  same  as  that  in  1890-91. 
Since  1902  there  has  been  a  gradual  increase;  in  1909-10 
students  of  theology,  including  491  women,  numbered 
11,012.  The  number  of  students  enrolled  in  the  law 
schools  in  1909-10  was  19,567;  in  the  medical  schools, 
21,394.  The  enrolment  in  medical  schools,  and  proba- 
bly also  in  law  schools,  has  been  abnormally  stimulated 
by  the  number  and  wide  distribution  of  these  institu- 
tions, some  of  which  are  purely  commercial,  and  many 
of  which  are  of  a  low  grade;  but  the  enrolment  in  the 
theological  schools  is  relatively  low,  a  condition  resulting 


10  Latin  and  Greek 

from  the  secularizing  of  our  education  and  the  lack  of 
an  adjustment  between  the  public-school  system  as  a 
whole  and  the  organization  of  society  along  religious  lines. 
To  this  same  cause  we  may  undoubtedly  attribute  the 
fact — if  it  is  a  fact — that  is  occasionally  mentioned  by 
professors  in  theological  schools,  who  say  that  theological 
students  at  the  present  time  are  of  a  lower  average  of 
ability  than  formerly;  since  the  great  majority  of  boys 
who  receive  a  secondary  training  are,  at  the  age  when 
life  purposes  become  fixed,  in  pubHc  high  schools,  where 
the  claims  of  the  ministry  are  not  and  cannot  be  urged, 
it  may  well  be  that  the  narrowing  of  the  field  of  selection 
affects  the  quality  of  the  students  who  choose  the  min- 
istry as  their  life  work;  we  may  more  easily  underestimate 
than  overestimate  the  influence  of  the  secondary  school 
in  determining  both  the  choice  of  a  career  and  its  effect- 
iveness. The  number  of  students  in  secondary  schools 
who  are  in  any  degree  influenced  to  study  Greek  by  a 
consideration  of  its  value  in  the  interpretation  of  the  New 
Testament  is  relatively  much  smaller  than  in  the  past. 
Apart  from  other  considerations,  if  the  religious  denom- 
inations in  the  United  States  are  to  maintain  in  the  edu- 
cation of  their  ministry  so  high  a  standard  as  the  age 
demands,  there  must  be  an  average  enrolment  of  at  least 
30,000  boys  in  Greek  in  the  secondary  schools  in  o:der 
to  furnish  a  constituency  from  which  recruits  may  be 
drawn  in  sufficient  numbers  for  the  study  of  theology.^ 
A  second  cause  lies  in  the  character  of  the  constitu- 
ency from  which  the  increase  in  the  attendance  of  public 
high  schools  has  largely  been  recruited.  Whatever  the 
local  organization  of  the  high  school  may  be,  or  the  par- 
ticular form  of  its  adjustment  to  the  unit  of  civic  admin- 
istration and  support,  its  existence  as  an  educational  type 

'  See  Symposium  IV. 


Present  Position  11 

implies  a  concentration  of  population  above  a  certain 
limit,  which  in  some  states  is  considerably  lower  than  in 
others.  There  is  a  large  number  of  high  schools  in  towns 
of  less  than  four  thousand  inhabitants;  but,  adopting 
for  convenience  the  standard  of  ''urban  population"^ 
employed  in  the  Census  of  1900,  we  note  that  in  1880  in 
the  United  States  the  persons  living  in  places  with  a 
population  of  4,000  or  more  represented  25.8  per  cent 
of  the  total  population;  in  1890,  33.1  per  cent,  and  in 
1900,  37. 6^  per  cent.  This  urban  population  was  not 
evenly  distributed,  but  massed  in  certain  geographical 
divisions.  In  the  north  Atlantic  states  in  1900,  64.7 
per  cent  of  the  population  were  living  in  incorporated 
places  and  towns  containing  upward  of  4,000  inhabitants, 
as  against  57.9  per  cent  in  1890  and  48  per  cent  in  1880; 
in  the  north  central  states,  the  percentage  in  1900  was 
35.5  and  in  the  western  states  35.9  per  cent,  as  against 
30.1  and  33.4  per  cent  respectively  in  1890,  and  21.1 
and  27.5  per  cent  in  1880.^  In  the  south  central  states 
the  urban  population  in  1900  formed  only  about  one- 
eighth  of  the  whole  (13.5  per  cent),  in  the  south  Atlantic 
states  less  than  one-fifth  (19.6).  The  statistics  of  the 
Census  of  1910  are  not  yet  available;    from  the  prelim- 

1  Defined  in  Census  Reports,  Twelfth  Census,  I,  Ixxxiii,  as  including 
"all  incorporated  places  with  a  population  of  4,000  or  more  and  all  New 
England  towns  of  like  population  which  do  not  contain  any  incorpo- 
rated places  within  their  limits." 

2  Hawaii,  the  Indian  reservations,  and  Indian  Territory  are  excluded 
from  consideration  in  this  comparative  view,  because  they  were  not 
reckoned  in  the  percentage  of  1880. 

'  The  enrolment  in  the  public  high  schools  in  1908-9  in  the  north 
Atlantic  states  was  271,188;  in  the  north  central  states,  375,316;  in 
the  western  states,  75,863;  in  the  south  central  states,  67,106;  in  the 
south  Atlantic  states,  51,800.  In  1909-10  the  enrolment  was  286,130 
in  the  north  Atlantic  states,  396,549  in  the  north  central  states,  87,857 
in  the  western  states,  85,573  in  the  south  central  states,  and  58,952  in 
the  south  Atlantic  states. 


12  Latin  and  Greek 

inary  summaries,  however,  and.  from  the  statistics  of 
1908  it  is  clear  that  the  increase  of  population  in  many 
cities  has  been  almost  as  great,  and  in  others  fully  as 
great,  in  the  first  ten  years  of  the  twentieth  century  as  in 
the  preceding  decade.  The  population  concentrated  in 
cities  having  30,000  or  more  inhabitants  in  1890  num- 
bered 14,762,706,  and  in  1900  numbered  19,697,808,  an 
increase  of  nearly  five  millions  in  ten  years;  in  1908  the 
estimated  population  of  this  class  of  cities  was  24,065,539, 
an  increase  of  more  than  four  millions  in  eight  years. ^ 

Though  many  factors  enter  into  the  final  result,  it  is 
certain  that  by  this  augmenting  of  urban  population 
both  the  attendance  and  what  we  may  call  the  social 
tone  of  the  public  high  schools  have  been  much  affected. 
The  tables  of  the  Census  showing  the  distribution  of 
persons  of  foreign  parentage  are  too  extensive  to  be  sum- 
marized here;  we  must  content  ourselves  with  the  brief 
general  statement  that  "persons  of  foreign  parentage 
comprised  from  three-fourths  to  more  than  four-fifths 
of  the  total  population  of  very  many  of  the  principal 

cities  in  1900 More  than  three-fourths  of  the 

population  of  New  York  and  Chicago  is  made  up  of  per- 
sons of  foreign  parentage,  Chicago  having  the  larger 
population,  or  77.4  per  cent,  as  against  76 . 9  per  cent  for 
New  York  City.  Boston  has  very  nearly  as  large  a  pro- 
portion of  foreign  parentage,  or  72.2  per  cent,  while  in 
St.  Louis  this  element  constitutes  61  per  cent  of  its  entire 
population."-     In   many   smaller   cities   the   percentage 

'  Statistics  of  Cities  Having  a  Population  of  over  30,000:  1908  (Wash- 
ington, 1910),  p.  83. 

2  Twelfth  Census,  I,  cxc.  An  interesting  study  of  the  linguistic 
conditions  of  Chicago,  which  have  an  important  bearing  on  the  problem 
of  educational  assimilation  of  the  foreign  elements,  has  been  made  by 
Professor  C.  D.  Buck  (Decennial  Publications  of  the  University  of  Chi- 
cago, VI,  97-114). 


Present  Position  13 

of  persons  of  foreign  parentage  is  nearly  as  great. 
Although  families  are  now  not  so  large  as  formerly,^ 
there  has  been  a  constant  increase  of  population  of  Ameri- 
can stock,  and  the  drift  of  boys  from  country  to  town 
continues;  but  no  one  who  has  visited  high  schools  in. 
many  cities  can  have  failed  to  notice  to  how  great  an 
extent  students  of  foreign  parentage  are  availing  them- 
selves of  the  privileges  of  secondary  education. 

Until  beyond  the  middle  of  the  last  century  our  edu- 
cational development  was  along  national  lines,  and  tended 
toward  those  ideals  which  reached  their  most  complete 
expression  in  New  England.  Valuable  as  is  the  contri- 
bution which  the  influx  of  foreigners  since  the  Civil  War 
has  made  to  our  population,  it  has  nevertheless  intro- 
duced into  our  urban  life  ideals  of  citizenship  and  educa- 
tion different  from  those  which  were  the  inheritance  of 
the  present  generation  of  American  born  and  bred.  The 
energy  of  the  first  generation  of  immigrants  is  expended 
in  the  accumulation  of  material  resources.  The  educa- 
tional ideals  of  the  succeeding  generations  tend  to  become 
assimilated  to  our  own;  but  in  the  families  of  foreign 
origin,  while  there  is  frequently  an  ambition  to  obtain 
an  education,  the  existence  of  a  tradition  or  ideal  of  lit- 
erary culture  is  much  more  rare  than  in  American  homes, 
whether  of  farmers  or  of  townspeople.  The  majority 
of  boys  and  girls  from  homes  without  an  atmosphere  of 
culture  may,  influenced  by  the  advice  of  teachers  and  the 

1  "  The  average  size  of  family  in  1790  was  5.7  persons  for  the  entire 
area  covered  (by  the  Census);  for  the  several  states  it  ranged  from  5.4 
in  Georgia  to  6. 1  in  Delaware.  In  1900  the  average  size  of  family,  both 
for  continental  United  States  as  a  whole  and  for  the  area  covered  in  1790, 
had  decreased  by  more  than  one  person  (5.7  to  4.6);  for  the  states 
covered  in  1790  it  ranged  from  4. 1  in  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  and  Ver- 
mont to  5  1  in  North  Carolina." — A  Century  of  Population  Growth  in  the 
United  States  (Washington,  1909),  p.  97. 


14  Latin  and  Greek 

general  spirit  of  the  school,  be  led  to  study  Latin;  Greek 
seems  to  them  very  remote.  It  would  never  occur  to 
such  students  to  ask  for  Greek  unless  as  a  result  of  some 
accidental  or  artificial  stimulus,  or  because  of  a  dearth 
of  studies  the  scope  and  purpose  of  which  seemed  more 
intelligible. 

The  growth  of  cities  is  intimately  connected  with  the 
amazing  development  of  our  country  along  industrial 
and  commercial  lines;  and  this  also  has  not  been  without 
its  influence  upon  secondary  and  collegiate  as  well  as 
technical  education.  The  present  has  been  styled  "the 
industrial  age";  but  in  this  country  more  than  elsewhere 
— because  we  have  greater  opportunites — men  are 
endeavoring,  with  the  help  of  inventions  and  appliances, 
to  exploit  in  a  single  generation  the  natural  resources 
which  in  a  former  age  would  have  engaged  the  activities 
of  many  generations;  and  all  feel  the  strain  of  the  effort. 
So  varied  are  the  native  riches  of  our  vast  domains,  so 
numerous  and  seductive  are  the  calls  to  the  conquest  of 
Nature,  that  the  popular  emphasis  of  applied  science  is 
not  to  be  wondered  at.  Nor  should  we  be  surprised  if, 
pending  a  readjustment  of  current  estimates  of  educa- 
tional values,  the  choice  of  studies  in  school  and  college 
should,  unless  checked  by  requirements,  veer  toward  the 
subjects  which  have,  or  are  thought  to  have,  a  close  rela- 
tion with  the  work  of  life.  A  large  proportion  of  the 
people,  and  many  educationists  as  well,  have  lost  sight 
of  the  cardinal  principle  that  the  fundamental  aim  of 
sound  education  is  to  develop  power,  not  to  acquire 
information;  hence  the  dangerous  trend  toward  early 
"specialization."  Against  such  tendencies  a  study  which 
does  not  offer  an  appeal  to  a  utilitarian  motive  will  find 
it  difficult  to  make  headway.     Greek  is  not  alone  in  this 


Present  Position  15 

category;  it  is,  further,  not  an  easy  study,  and  when 
paired  with  subjects  which  exact  less  mental  effort,  it 
is  sure  to  lose  in  competition  by  reason  of  its  greater 
difficulty. 

Notwithstanding  these  disadvantages,  the  enrolment 
in  Greek  in  secondary  schools  for  a  time  kept  up  with  the 
increase  of  population  for  two  reasons.  The  first  is  that 
in  so  great  a  country  there  must  always  be  a  certain  per- 
centage of  those  who,  from  family  tradition  or  a  literary 
bent  or  theological  interests,  will  have  for  this  study 
a  predilection  which  no  outside  influence  can  uproot; 
but  the  second  and  much  more  important  reason  is  that 
until  recently  most  colleges  made  Greek  a  requirement 
for  admission  to  at  least  one  course. 

How  great  have  been  the  changes  in  the  requirements 
for  admission  to  college  in  the  past  decade  one  familiar 
with  the  older  order  of  things  will  appreciate  by  glancing 
over  a  tabulated  list  of  requirements,  such  as  that  pub- 
lished in  the  Proceedings  of  the  North  Central  Association  of 
Colleges  and  Secondary  Schools  for  1905.  A  few  institutions 
still  require  Greek  for  admission;  others  give  it  a  certain 
amount  of  protection;  but  the  majority  now  make 
entrance  without  Greek  easy.  Herein  lies  the  chief 
cause  of  the  decline  in  the  enrolment  of  Greek  students 
in  secondary  schools  from  about  25,000  in  1898  to  less 
than  11,000  in  1910.  The  limitations  of  space  make  it 
impossible  to  analyze  the  statistics  in  detail;  but  espe- 
cially instructive  is  the  decline  in  the  number  of  Greek 
students  in  the  secondary  schools  of  the  north  central 
states  from  5,030  in  1897-98  to  2,767  in  1903-4,  when 
confronted  with  the  changes  made  in  the  admission 
requirements  of  prominent  colleges  in  the  same  states, 
which  in  this  period  began  to  give  the  degree  of  Bachelor 


10  Latin  and  Greek 

of  Arts  to  all  graduates  and  modified  their  courses  of 
study  and  requirements  for  admission  accordingly. 

The  statistics  of  the  enrolment  of  students  in  Latin 
and  Greek  in  the  colleges  are  not  complete  enough  to 
serve  as  a  safe  guide.  The  numbers  given  in  the  Report 
of  the  Commissioner  of  Education  for  1900-1901  were  27,219 
and  16,218  respectively;  in  the  Report  for  1905-6,  31,- 
573  and  16,043.  In  these  totals,  not  to  speak  of  other 
omissions,  no  report  is  included  from  Harvard  or  Yale, 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  or  the  University  of 
Michigan;  and  it  is  not  clear  whether  in  the  case  of  all 
the  colleges  reporting  the  numbers  refer  to  individual 
students  or  to  elections  of  studies. 

In  many  institutions  the  collegiate  student  now  has  so 
large  a  freedom  of  choice  among  so  many  subjects  that  he 
may,  if  he  chooses,  begin  to  "specialize"  soon  after  he 
enters.  The  natural  consequence  is  that,  if  he  is  ambi- 
tious, he  will  choose  work,  so  far  as  possible,  in  prep- 
aration for  the  career  which  he  sets  before  himself;  if 
he  is  not  ambitious,  he  will  follow  the  line  of  least  resist- 
ance. In  not  a  few  institutions  the  idea  of  a  "liberal 
education"  in  the  old  sense  is  almost  lost  sight  of;  and 
as  students  elect  their  studies  with  a  view  to  future 
utility,  where  Latin  and  Greek  are  not  required  they 
tend  to  be  taken  in  college  chiefly  by  those  who  purpose 
to  become  teachers. 

Has  the  advance  of  the  modern  world  provided  sub- 
jects to  which  the  time  now  spent  on  Latin  and  Greek 
might  be  devoted  with  greater  profit  ?  If  not,  are  these 
educational  resources  being  utilized  in  such  a  way  as  to 
produce  the  best  results  for  training  and  culture  ?  These 
questions  are  too  large  to  be  answered  in  a  word. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  VALUE  OF  LATIN  AND  GREEK  AS  EDUCATIONAL 
INSTRUMENTS 

The  criteria  by  which  the  educational  value  of  a  study 
may  be  estimated  are  not  the  same  for  the  different 
periods  of  student  life,  nor  for  the  different  classes  of 
subjects.  In  advanced  professional  courses,  as  those  of 
law  and  engineering,  the  first  place  is  given  to  the  sub- 
jects which  contribute  most  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
working  methods  and  of  the  data  that  will  be  useful  in 
the  practice  of  a  profession;  utility  is  the  paramount 
consideration.  As  we  descend  from  technical  training 
to  the  primary  grades,  a  consideration  of  the  usefulness 
of  a  particular  study  in  immediate  preparation  for  bread- 
winning  becomes  of  less  and  less  weight;  in  elementary 
education  those  subjects  have  the  largest  value  as  edu- 
cational instruments  which  open  the  mind  to  the  world, 
bring  it  into  touch  with  human  experience,  and  culti- 
vate mental  alertness  and  nimbleness;  which  increase 
the  power  of  concentration,  mold  the  imagination  without 
deadening  it,  stimulate  initiative  in  thought  and  action, 
and  develop  power  of  expression.  The  goal  of  education 
is  ultimately  the  general  good,  the  service  of  society; 
but  its  immediate  purpose  concerns  only  the  good  of  the 
individual,  whom  educational  processes  aim  to  bring  to 
self-discovery,  self-mastery,  and  self-direction. 

The  acquisition  of  knowledge  as  a  concomitant  of  the 
educational  process  becomes  increasingly  important  as 
we  ascend  from  lower  to  higher  grades  of  instruction; 
but  of  greater  value  than  the  knowledge  acquired,  in  the 

17 


18  Latin  and  Greek 

period  of  adolescence  as  of  childhood,  are  first,  the  devel- 
opment of  the  power  to  absorb,  digest,  and  fructify 
knowledge  through  observation,  comparison  or  co-or- 
dination, and  generalization,  and  secondly,  the  strength- 
ening of  the  moral  nature  through  the  assimilation  of 
ethical  concepts  and  the  stimulation  of  impulses  to  right 
action.  The  details  of  the  content  of  instruction  at  any 
stage  may  be  eliminated,  leaving  only  general  impressions, 
yet  the  habits  of  thought,  largeness  of  view,  and  shaping 
of  conduct  gained  by  bringing  them  into  a  vitalizing 
contact  with  the  mind  may  so  equip  the  individual  for 
the  solution  of  the  varied  problems  of  life  that  he  will 
bring  all  his  powers  into  exercise  for  his  own  and  the 
world's  good. 

There  is  no  study  within  the  grasp  of  the  youthful 
mind  which,  in  the  hands  of  an  intelligent  and  forceful 
teacher,  may  not  be  made  fruitful  as  a  means  of  training. 
Yet  all  subjects  do  not  contribute  to  the  same  educational 
ends,  nor  are  subjects  of  the  same  class,  as,  for  example, 
the  foreign  languages,  equally  effective  as  material  of 
instruction.  Since  the  educational  values  of  subjects 
vary,  only  those  should  be  selected  for  use  as  educational 
instruments  in  any  period  of  training  which  will  yield 
the  largest  results  in  return  for  the  expenditure  of  time 
and  effort.  In  this  selection,  moreover,  there  must  be 
kept  in  view  not  only  the  age  and  degree  of  maturity  of 
the  pupil,  but  also  the  existence  of  differences  in  aptitude 
and  aims.  Nevertheless,  in  the  regions  nearest  the 
upper  and  lower  limits  of  our  educational  system  there  is 
slight  disagreement  regarding  the  choice  of  studies.  No 
one  will  dispute  the  importance  of  arithmetic  for  the  child, 
or  of  anatomy  for  the  student  of  medicine;  the  only 
question  is,  how  shall  these  subjects  be  taught,  and  how 


Educational  Value  19 

much  time  shall  be  devoted  to  them?  Though  there 
are  differences  of  detail,  broadly  speaking  the  studies 
both  of  the  primary  school  and  of  the  professional  schools 
are  prescribed,  with  only  a  minimum  of  choice  allowed 
to  the  individual  student;  but  in  the  middle  ground 
between  the  two  extremes  we  find  a  great  diversity  of 
views  and  practice,  affecting  the  selection  of  studies  in 
the  period  in  which  the  schooling  of  students  who  do  not 
go  to  college  comes  to  an  end,  and  in  which,  in  the  case 
of  those  who  go  farther,  the  transition  is  made  from 
general  to  special  or  professional  studies. 

In  this  country  the  break  between  the  primary  and 
the  secondary  school,  and  that  between  the  secondary 
school  and  the  university  or  college  are,  in  some  respects, 
unfortunately  placed.  Though  the  values  of  Latin  and 
Greek  as  educational  instruments  are  in  a  degree  affected 
by  the  age  of  the  pupil  when  these  subjects  are  brought 
before  him,  as  well  as  by  the  choice  of  other  subjects  pur- 
sued at  the  same  time,  we  cannot  here  enter  into  a  fuller 
analysis  of  the  general  situation  and  weigh  in  detail  the 
considerations  which  should  determine  the  selection  of 
studies  at  each  stage  of  the  student's  progress,  or  the 
limits  within  which  his  choice  should  be  restricted;  we 
must  confine  ourselves  to  a  single  statement.  In  the 
light  of  the  teachings  both  of  a  sound  psychology  and  of 
experience,  viewing  the  four  years  of  the  secondary  school 
and  the  first  three  years  of  the  college  course  as  an  edu- 
cational whole,  we  may  say  that  no  system  of  liberal 
education  can  be  considered  adequate  which  does  not 
in  this  period  bring  every  normal  mind  into  contact  with 
science  studies,  as  developing  power  for  the  interpretation 
of  Nature;  mathematics,  as  training  in  the  handling 
of  fundamental  products  of  consciousness  and  in  abstract 


20  Latin  and  Greek 

reasoning;  historical  and  economic  subjects,  as  furnishing 
a  background  for  the  interpretation  of  social  phenomena, 
as  contributing  to  the  understanding  of  man  as  a  unit  of 
aggregate  life;  elementary  philosophy,  as  conducing  to 
the  student's  control  of  his  mental  powers  and  resources; 
foreign  languages,  as  yielding  at  the  same  time  discipline 
and  enrichment  of  the  mind,  as  exercising  the  imagina- 
tion, cultivating  aesthetic  appreciation,  clarifying  moral 
ideals,  and  developing  power  of  expression;  and  finally, 
the  study  of  English,  both  language  and  literature,  first 
as  a  means  of  adjusting  the  English-speaking  student 
to  his  environment  by  making  him  master  of  a  priceless 
heritage,  then  as  a  training  in  the  use  of  that  instrument 
by  which  more  than  any  other  his  influence  in  the  world 
will  be  exerted. 

It  is  probably  unnecessary  to  point  out  the  fallacy  upon 
which  rests  the  popular  view  that  he  is  well  educated  who 
can  speak  several  languages,  and  that  the  educational 
value  of  the  study  of  a  foreign  language  resides  chiefly 
in  oral  mastery.  Were  this  belief  well  founded,  the  head 
waiters  of  the  New  Willard  Hotel  in  Washington  and  of 
the  Quirinale  in  Rome  would  belong  in  the  class  of  highly 
educated  men,  and  children  of  twelve  or  thirteen  years 
who  can  speak  three  languages  (an  accomphshment  not 
uncommon  in  the  homes  of  the  higher  classes  in  Europe) 
would  be  thought  of  as  completing  rather  than  as  enter- 
ing upon  the  more  important  period  of  their  education. 
In  a  paper  before  the  Chicago  Literary  Club  David 
Swing  once  said,  in  substance,  "You  may  name  a  yellow 
dog  in  half  a  dozen  languages,  and  you  will  have  only 
the  same  yellow  dog,  after  all."  When  the  body  of  the 
child  is  growing  rapidly  the  cells  of  the  brain  which  store 
up  impressions  of  words  are,  it  is  believed,  easily  built 


Educational  Value  21 

up,  hence  the  study  of  foreign  languages  should  be  com- 
menced early  and  their  vocabularies  recorded  in  brain 
structure;  but  from  the  point  of  view  of  mental  devel- 
opment the  retentiveness  of  memory  by  which  the  same 
concept  may  be  reproduced  in  different  forms  of  speech 
is  less  signiificant  than  the  ability  to  correlate  different 
concepts  in  a  single  language  with  an  accurate  command 
of  distinctions  of  meaning  and  connotations.  While 
we  may  concede  not  only  a  practical  but  also  a  disci- 
plinary value  in  the  acquiring  of  a  language  other  than 
our  own  in  such  a  way  as  to  speak  it,  the  fruitfulness  of 
foreign-language  study  arises  from  more  fundamental 
considerations ;  we  must  take  into  account  not  merely  the 
forms  and  relations  of  words  as  written  or  spoken  but 
also  the  literary  masterpieces  with  which  the  mind  is 
brought  into  contact  through  the  processes  of  exposition 
and  translation,  and  the  conditions  of  culture  revealed 
by  the  intensive  stud}^  of  the  language  through  selected 
portions  of  the  literature.  Specifically,  Latin  and  Greek 
become  effective  as  educational  instruments  in  at  least 
seven  different  ways: 

By  training  in  the  essentials  of  scientific  method :   observation, 

comparison,  generalization; 
By  making  our  own  language  intelligible  and  developing  the 

power  of  expression; 
By  bringing  the  mind  into  contact  with  literature  in  elemental 

forms; 
By  giving  insight  into  a  basic  civilization; 
By  cultivating  the  constructive  imagination; 
By  clarifying  moral  ideals,  and  stimulating  to  right  conduct; 
By  furnishing  means  of  recreation. 

I 

For  men  in  all  walks  of  life  the  powers  of  observation, 
by  which  we  observe  things  not  in  masses  but  accurately, 


22  Latin  and  Greek 

in  detail;  comparison,  by  which  we  group  things  and 
characteristics  that  are  similar,  perceiving  likenesses 
and  (Uflferences  between  classes;  and  generalization,  by 
which  we  formulate  in  a  comprehensive  and  exact  state- 
ment the  products  of  observation  and  comparison,  by 
which  we  interpret  our  findings  in  their  relations  and  set 
them  forth  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  them  plain  to  others, 
are  fundamental  for  the  doing  of  the  day's  work  effectively. 
The  field  of  operations  may  be  that  of  the  housemaid, 
the  mechanic,  the  clerk,  the  farmer,  the  manufacturer, 
the  banker,  the  physician,  the  engineer,  or  the  expert  in 
any  field;  success  or  failure  will  depend  in  a  like  degree 
upon  no  other  qualities  or  powers  of  mind  or  training, 
and  upon  no  other  does  the  educational  process  as  a 
whole  lay  more  stress  m  the  endeavor  to  develop  a 
trained  out  of  an  untrained  mind.  Men  of  extraordinary 
gifts  may  dispense  with  ordinary  training  and  yet  achieve 
noteworthy  results;  but  for  all  except  an  infinitesimal 
minority  education,  as  contributing  the  essentials  of  a 
working  method,  becomes  the  more  important  the  higher 
the  sphere  of  labor. 

As  an  instrument  of  training  in  the  essentials  of  a 
working  method  no  modern  language  and  no  science  is 
the  equal  of  Latin,  either  in  the  number  and  variety  of 
mental  processes  which  may  be  stimulated  with  a  mini- 
mum expenditure  of  effort,  or  in  the  ease  and  accuracy 
with  which  the  results  of  those  processes  may  be  checked 
up,  errors  of  observation  or  inference  detected,  and  cor- 
rections made.  Latin  has  the  further  advantage  over 
science  that  it  is  a  more  effectual  means  of  fixing  the 
attention.  It  is  not  necessary  here  to  analyze  a  Latin 
sentence  in  order  to  show  how  the  differences  in  the 
forms  and  relations  of  words  in  the  simplest  exercises 


Educational  Value  23 

require  for  their  mastery  concentration  as  an  indispen- 
sable condition;  then,  exactness  of  observation,  accuracy 
of  discrimination,  and  carefulness  in  drawing  conclusions, 
the  shortcomings  of  which  are  obvious  the  moment  that 
a  phrase  or  sentence  is  translated  from  Latin  into  English 
or  from  English  into  Latin. ^  Principals  of  schools  remark 
that  the  discipline  and  spirit  of  a  school  are  better  in 
which  the  majority  of  the  pupils  are  studying  Latin. 
The  reason  is  that  no  other  study,  excepting  Greek,  so 
well  serves  the  purpose  of  bringing  the  boyish  mind  under 
control,  of  helping  to  gain  self-mastery. 

What  has  been  said  of  Latin  may  be  said  also  of  Greek ; 
but  there  is  this  difference,  that  in  the  study  of  Greek 
the  use  of  an  alphabet  unlike  our  own  and  of  accents 
makes  further  demands  upon  the  powers  of  observation, 
while  the  refinements  of  meaning,  particularly  in  the  use 
of  certain  forms  of  the  verb,  require  on  the  whole  a  subtler 
analysis  than  in  the  study  of  Latin.  More  than  one 
well-trained  man  dates  his  awakening  to  the  importance 
of  accuracy  in  all  things  from  his  teacher's  correcting 
of  his  accents  in  elementary  Greek  exercises. 

Eminent  investigators  and  teachers  of  science  the  world 
over  recognize  the  value  of  the  classics  as  preparing  stu- 
dents in  the  best  way  to  enter  upon  the  work  of  their 
specialties.  Says  Dean  Vaughan:  "William  Harvey, 
whose  keenness  and  accuracy  of  observation  led  to  the 
discovery  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  after  many 
years  devoted  to  the  classics,  gave  five  to  the  study  of 
medicine,  and  his  fitness  was  proved  by  his  work."^ 
Professor  Ramsay^  reports  a  conversation  with  the  dis- 

'  The  point  is  well  illustrated  by  Professor  Wenley;  see  p.  72. 

2  See  p.  85. 

'  Efficiency  in  Education  (Glasgow,  1902),  p.  21. 


24  Latin  and  Greek 

tiiiguisliod  chemist  Bauer  in  the  laboratories  of  the  Hohe 
Techiiische  Schule  in  Vienna: 

I  questioned  him  as  to  the  relative  capacities  of  students 
coming  to  his  classes  from  the  classical  Gymnasien  and  the 
Rcol-Schulen  respectively.  I  presumed  that  his  best  chemical 
students  came  to  him  from  the  Real-Schulen.  "Not  at  all," 
he  replied;  "all  my  best  students  come  from  the  Gymnasien. 
The  students  from  the  Real-Schulen  do  best  at  first;  but  after 
three  months'  work  here,  they  are,  as  a  rule,  left  behind  by  those 
coming  from  the  Gymnasie7i."  "How  do  you  account  for  that  ?" 
I  asked;  "I  understand  that  students  in  the  Real-Schulen  are 
specially  instructed  in  chemistry."  "Yes,"  he  replied;  "but 
the  students  from  the  Gymnasien  have  the  best  trained  minds. 
Give  me  a  student  who  has  been  taught  his  Latin  grammar, 
and  I  will  answer  for  his  chemistry." 

Professor  Sadler,  who  holds  a  chair  of  marine  engineer- 
ing, speaking  of  the  best  preparation  for  the  student  who 
purposes  to  enter  upon  the  study  of  engineering,  says: 

An  analytic,  in  preference  to  a  philosophic  mind,  is  the  type 
that  should  be  cultivated.  In  order  to  be  successful,  the  student 
should  have  formed  the  habit  of  co-ordination  and  exactness 
in  his  earlier  years  of  study.  While  it  may  be  the  opinion  of 
many  that  the  introduction  of  some  elementary  form  of  science 
may  accomplish  this  result,  I  venture  to  suggest  that,  as  a 
general  rule,  studies  of  this  nature  will  have  an  effect  diametri- 
cally opposite,  and  lead  toward  vagueness  rather  than  concrete- 

ness As  a  means  of  inculcating  ideas  of  exactness  the 

study  of  Greek  and  Latin  is  facile  princeps.^ 

It  would  be  superfluous  to  accumulate  evidence  on  a 
point  on  which  testimony  is  so  abundant  and  convincing. 
Nor  is  it  necessary  to  discuss  the  value  of  formal  disci- 
pline from  the  psychological  point  of  view;  a  symposium 
on  this  subject  forms  a  part  of  the  present  volume. 

There  is  the  practical  consideration,  of  weight  espe- 

1  See  p.  103. 


Educational  Value  25 

cially  in  this  country  in  which  we  are  trying  the  experi- 
ment of  furnishing  secondary  education  on  a  colossal 
scale  at  public  expense,  that  a  good  teacher  having  a 
class  provided  with  Latin  books  costing  a  couple  of  dollars 
for  each  student  will  in  a  year  secure  better  results  in  the 
training  of  young  pupils  in  the  essentials  of  a  sound 
working  method  than  an  equally  good  science  teacher 
will  accomplish  in  a  much  longer  time  with  the  help  of  a 
laboratory  costly  of  construction,  equipment,  and  main- 
tenance. The  sciences  are  just  as  essential  to  liberal 
education  as  are  the  languages,  ancient  or  modern;  but 
in  the  fundamentals  of  training  they  are  not,  and  under 
present  methods  of  instruction  cannot  hope  to  become, 
an  equivalent  substitute  for  Latin  and  Greek. 

II 

The  study  of  Latin  and  Greek  contributes  to  the  stu- 
dent's command  of  English  through  the  enlargement  of 
his  vocabulary,  and  the  enrichment  of  it  in  synonyms 
expressing  the  finer  shades  of  meaning;  through  his 
acquaintance  with  the  original  or  underlying  meanings 
of  words,  through  his  familiarity  with  the  principles  of 
word  formation,  and  through  the  insight  into  the  structure 
of  the  English  language  afforded  by  a  mastery  of  the 
Latin. 

The  indebtedness  of  our  current  idiom  to  Latin,  and 
of  our  technical  vocabularies  to  Latin  and  Greek,  is  a 
matter  of  common  knowledge.  The  large  proportion  of 
words  of  classical  origin  on  every  page  of  English  text 
is  apparent  at  a  glance,  and  the  borrowed  elements  are 
of  precisely  the  kind  that  a  complex  and  highly  differ- 
entiated culture  requires  for  the  expression  of  its  manifold 
activities,  being  rich  in  abstract  and  characterizing  terms. 


26  Latin  and  Greek 

in  refinements,  and  in  phases  of  condition  and  action. 
Nor  is  it  necessary  to  dwell  in  detail  upon  the  profit  of 
Latin  grammar  as  revealing  English  grammar  to  the 
English-speaking  student,  partly  because  it  shows  in  a 
clear  light  those  fundamental  relations  which  in  our 
mother-tongue  are  obscured  by  the  loss  of  inflections, 
partly  because  the  terms  of  our  formal  grammar  are 
borrowed  from  the  Latin,  and  are  understood  in  their 
full  significance  only  in  connection  with  the  study  of  the 
language  for  the  analysis  of  which  they  were  primarily 
devised.  Whatever  contributes  to  the  student's  grasp 
of  the  essential  elements  of  vocabulary  and  structure 
adds  to  his  power  over  language  as  an  instrument  of 
thought,  and  so  to  his  effectiveness  as  a  doer  of  the  day's 
work. 

This  consideration  ought  to  be  made  all  the  more 
prominent  at  the  present  time  because  for  several  decades 
there  has  been  among  us  a  disposition  to  magnify  content 
to  the  disregard  if  not  to  the  disparagement  of  form,  to 
emphasize  the  accumulation  of  facts  without  attaching 
sufficient  importance  to  the  power  of  exact  expression, 
especially  in  the  case  of  studies  preparatory  to  professional 
courses.  Professor  Gardner  S.  Williams,  speaking  from 
the  point  of  view  of  a  department  of  civil,  hydraulic, 
and  sanitary  engineering,  declares  that  ''there  is  nothing 
in  which  engineers  today  are  so  lacking  as  in  the  ability 
to  express  their  thoughts."  He  illustrates  the  point 
by  remarking,  in  regard  to  a  senior  class  of  engineers, 
that  95  per  cent  of  those  who  have  not  had  a  classical 
training  will  fail  to  distinguish  the  difference  between  the 
words  affect  and  effect,  "and  yet  the  difference  is  quite 
essential,  and  it  is  especially  essential  to  the  engineer."^ 

iSeep.  118. 


Educational  Value  27 

I  have  heard  a  professor  of  physics  lament  the  inabihty 
of  a  class  of  university  students  without  a  knowledge  of 
Latin  to  comprehend  so  simple  a  term  as  aqueous;  and 
Professor  Sadler,  whom  I  have  already  quoted,  testifies: 
''It  is  an  everyday  experience  that  the  origin  of  most 
lawsuits  in  engineering,  especially  in  cases  of  interpreta- 
tion of  a  specification,  or  in  patent  suits,  may  be  traceable 
directly  to  some  idea  loosely  or  inadequately  expressed."^ 
Both  Professor  Williams  and  Professor  Sadler  urge  the 
study  of  the  classics  by  the  prospective  engineer. 

The  opinion  of  Dr.  Charles  B.  G.  de  Nancr^de  is  of 
weight  because  of  his  eminence  not  only  as  a  surgeon  but 
also  as  a  professor  of  surgery,  with  an  experience  of  more 
than  four  decades  in  giving  instruction.  He  finds  the 
Greekless  students  of  the  present  time  not  so  well  pre- 
pared to  enter  upon  the  study  of  medicine  as  were  those 
who  in  former  years  came  up  through  the  classical  course. 
He  says: 

It  is  surely  breaking  one  of  the  first  rules  of  pedagogy  to  try 
to  convey  information  concerning  abstruse  subjects  to  those 
who  have  never  heard  anything  resembUng  these  new  ideas,  in  a 
technical  language  that  they  cannot  understand — in  an  unknown 
tongue,  as  it  were.  This  is  just  what  we  do,  and,  .... 
lack  of  knowledge  of  the  dead  languages  proves  a  serious  hin- 
drance to  teaching  medicine,  because  we  compel  the  student  to 
learn  a  language  composed  of  terms  which  to  him  are  meaning- 
less but  with  which  he  is  to  acquire  knowledge  of  entirely  new 
subjects,  subjects  to  which  he  should  devote  all  his  energies. 
This  is  bad  enough;  but  what  is  still  worse  is,  that  those  who 
have  never  studied  Latin  or  Greek  very  rarely  take  the  trouble 
to  consult  the  dictionary  to  ascertain  the  meanings  of  scientific 
terms. ^ 

The  medical  student  well  prepared  in  Greek  and  Latin 
finds  it  rarely  necessary  to  turn  to  a  dictionary.     To 

I  See  p.  105.  2  See  p.  89. 


28  Latin  and  Greek 

liiin  the  technical  terms  of  his  specialty  are  self-inter- 
preting and  luminous,  an  advantage  of  incalculable 
moment  for  his  progress;  and  he  will  be  able  to  coin  new 
terms  intelligently  and  accurately  as  the  enlargement  of 
fields  of  investigation  may  require.  The  importance  of 
a  first-hand  knowlege  of  Latin  and  Greek  words  for  the 
student  of  law  and  of  theology  is  too  obvious  to  require 
mention. 

The  use  of  Greek  and  Latin  terms  in  scientific  nomen- 
clature is  not,  as  is  sometimes  assumed,  due  to  either 
conservatism  or  affectation.  Only  a  language  no  longer 
spoken  is  suitable  for  use  in  technical  terminology,  because 
the  words  of  a  living  language  are  sure  to  develop  differ- 
ences of  meaning,  with  resulting  ambiguity;  protection 
against  error,  not  to  speak  of  the  convenience  of  the 
scientist,  can  be  assured  only  by  an  exact  and  unvarying 
correspondence  between  symbol  and  concept.  The 
practical  bearing  of  this  may  be  seen  in  the  following 
quotation  from  The  Druggists'  Circular: 

Suppose  the  writer  should  fall  sick  and  his  physician  should 
decide  that  the  one  thing  needful  to  save  his  life  was  Geranium 
robertianum.  If  there  were  a  law  preventing  the  doctor  from 
prescribing  in  Latin  he  would  have  to  choose  one  of  the  upward 
of  a  dozen  English  names  for  this  drug.  Suppose  he  chose 
"redshanks"  and  so  wrote  the  word  in  his  prescription. 
When  the  druggist  went  to  prepare  the  medicine  he  would  find 
that  "redshanks"  was  the  English  name  of  at  least  four  entirely 
different  plants,  namely,  the  one  already  mentioned,  Polygonum 

amphibium,  Polygonum   persicaria,   and   Rumex   acetosa 

As  with  redshanks  so  with  hundreds  of  other  drugs.  Aaron's 
beard  may  be  Cotlnus  cotinus,  Cymbalaria  cymbalaria,  or  Saxi- 
fraga  sarmentosa.     Of  snakeroots  there  are  numberless  kinds. 

Quite  apart  from  the  value  of  Latin  or  Greek  as 
illuminating  the  technical  vocabularies  of  the  professions, 


Educational  Value  29 

no  other  study  is  so  fruitful  in  conducing  to  the  command 
of  all  the  resources  of  expression,  a  quality  never  more 
required  of  an  educated  leadership  than  now.  The  late 
Senator  Hoar  was  a  close  observer  of  men  and  things; 
out  of  a  long  and  varied  experience  in  public  life,  speaking 
of  the  highest  types  of  character  and  personality',  he 
declared : 

I  have  a  very  deep-seated  and  strong  conviction  that  one 
powerful  influence  in  forming  such  a  character,  in  the  matter  of 
taste,  of  mental  vigor,  of  the  capacity  for  public  speaking  and 
for  wTiting,  in  the  power  of  conveying  with  clearness  and  force 
and  persuasive  power,  without  any  loss  in  the  transmission,  the 
thought  that  is  in  the  speaker  or  writer  to  the  mind  of  the  people, 
is  to  study  and  translate  what  are  called  the  classics,  the  great 
Latin  and  Greek  authors.     I  think  this  not  only  an  important 

but  an  essential  instrumentality Of  one  thing  I  feel 

very  confident.  That  is,  that  the  men  whom  I  have  known 
at  the  bar,  in  public  life,  and  in  the  pulpit,  who  have  been  good 
Latin  or  Greek  scholars,  and  who  have  kept  up  the  love  and 
study  of  either  language  through  life,  especially  those  who  have 
been  lovers  of  Greek,  have  shown  great  superiority  in  the  matter 
of  effective  public  speaking. 

Ill 

That  a  knowledge  and  appreciation  of  English  litera- 
ture should  be  among  the  resultant  products  of  a  liberal 
training  will  be  denied  by  no  one;  and  it  is  among  the 
incidental  advantages  of  the  study  of  Latin  and  Greek 
that  these  contribute  more  richly  than  the  modern  lan- 
guages to  a  sympathetic  understanding  of  our  literary 
masterpieces.  European  literature  began  beside  the 
Aegean  and  the  Tiber.  Strive  as  we  may  to  free  ourselves 
from  the  spell  of  Homer,  Sophocles,  and  Plato,  of  Horace, 
and  Cicero,  and  Virgil,  we  must  hark  back  to  them  and 
own  their  sway,  for  their  thoughts  and  imagery  are  in  the 


30  Latin  and  Greek 

warp  and  woof  of  our  national  expression.  They  set 
forth  universal  truths  of  human  nature  and  experience 
in  primary  forms,  as  Euclid  expresses  once  for  all  the 
elementary  propositions  of  geometry.  No  second-hand 
or  guidebook  knowledge  can  give  the  reader  of  English 
literature  the  feeling  for  reference  and  allusion  which 
those  of  our  writers  had  who  were  saturated  with  the 
classics,  and  which  we  must  have  if  we  would  appreciate 
them  fully. ^ 

It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  student  who  does 
not  read  many  authors  or  works  in  Greek  and  Latin,  or 
reads  them  laboriously,  gains  from  his  study  no  literary 
element;  for  as  he  spells  out  a  Virgilian  picture  word  by 
word,  or  with  toil  unlocks  a  truism  of  the  Archias  or 
De  senectute,  he  is  trained  not  only  in  the  perception  of 
universal  beauty  and  truth,  but  also  in  the  fundamental 
principles  of  artistic  construction.  There  is  no  page  of  a 
great  master  which  does  not  yield  to  intensive  study  some- 
thing more  than  a  knowledge  of  words  and  constructions, 
something  that  will  exert  an  influence,  even  if  unper- 
ceived,  toward  the  ideal  in  thought  and  expression.  And 
to  him  who  reads  with  ease  and  pleasure  the  reward  will 
be  proportionally  greater. 

True  as  this  is  of  the  study  of  Greek  and  Latin  for 
all  who  as  liberally  educated  men  wish  to  read  Enghsh 
masterpieces  with  full  understanding,  with  how  much 
greater  force  does  it  apply  to  those  who  purpose  to  make 
the  interpretation  of  English  literature  their  life  work. 
It  is  a  wretched  and,  unfortunately,  a  not   uncommon 

1  The  character  and  frequency  of  classical  allusion  are  well  illus- 
trated by  Harrington  in  his  Live  Issues  in  Classical  Study  (1910),  pp. 
20-36;  and  by  E.  L.  Miller  in  "The  Greek  in  English,"  School  Review, 
XIII  (1905),  390-97,  reprinted  also  in  the  Classical  Weekly,  IV  (1910). 
34-36. 


Educational  Value  31 

sight,  to  see  a  man  ^vithout  a  classical  training  attempt 
to  teach  English  in  school  or  college,  not  realizing  his 
own  limitations  or  perceiving  the  chief  reason  why  he 
lacks  that  vitalizing  and  visualizing  power  to  recreate 
for  his  students  the  enviromnent  of  a  masterpiece  so 
that  they  too  shall  see  the  visions  and  dream  the  dreams 
of  the  seer.  Such  a  teacher  will  run  into  stormy  water 
in  interpreting  Chaucer  and  Spenser,  make  shipwreck  in 
Milton,  and  plunge  to  Davy  Jones's  locker  in  Keats  and 
Browning. 

IV 
It  is  a  remarkable  circumstance  that  the  age  which  has 
adopted  the  doctrine  of  evolution  as  a  general  working 
formula,  which  has  laid  down  as  a  cardinal  principle  the 
interpretation  of  what  is  by  what  has  been,  should  in 
the  same  breath,  as  it  were,  have  pressed  the  claims 
of  the  newer  learning  so  far  as  to  seem,  at  times,  to 
have  left  no  room  for  Greek  and  Latin.  How  can 
a  man,  either  as  citizen  leader  or  investigator,  with 
insight,  grasp,  and  sureness  of  touch  deal  with  the 
complex  social  phenomena  of  the  modern  world  without 
a  first-hand  knowledge  of  the  earlier  phases  of  the  move- 
ment of  culture,  of  which  the  present  is  only  a  later  phase  ? 
Does  one  doubt  the  close  interrelation  of  modern  Euro- 
pean or  Anglo-Saxon  with  Greek  and  Roman,  or  more 
properly  Graeco-Roman,  civiHzation?  The  chanting  of 
Latin  ceaselessly  follows  the  sun  around  the  whole  earth. 
No  grocer's  clerk  in  England  or  Australia  makes  an  entry 
of  account  under  the  current  symbols  £  s.  d.  (for  libra, 
solidum,  denarius)  without  thereby  bearing  witness  to  the 
abiding  influence  of  Rome  not  as  a  schoolmaster  but  as 
an  organizer  and  administrator.  There  is  no  American 
country  school  so  humble  that  it  does  not  testify,  by 


32  Latin  and  Greek 

providing  Greek  "leisure"  (cr;\;oXr;)  for  the  learning  of 
Roman  "letters"  (littcrae),  alike  to  the  essential  oneness 
of  the  culture  of  ancient  Greece  and  Rome  and  to  its 
dominance  in  the  modern  world.  Not  inappropriately, 
from  either  the  cultural  or  the  historical  point  of  view,, 
does  our  American  dollar  sign  present  in  its  two  upright 
bars  (according  to  the  more  probable  explanation)  a 
symbol  of  the  pillars  of  Hercules. 

We  may  attribute  the  fullest  weight  to  the  influence 
of  the  Teutonic  and  Semitic  elements  in  our  civilization — 
the  power  of  the  Bible  over  modern  life  has  been  incal- 
culable; yet  our  philosophy  and  our  arts  began  in  Greece, 
and  if  an  American  student  wishes  to  prepare  himself 
in  the  best  way  to  practice  law  in  Louisiana  or  the  new 
insular  possessions  of  the  United  States,  he  must  make 
the  basis  of  his  study  not  Blackstone  but  Gains  and  Jus- 
tinian. The  number  and  mode  of  designation  of  the 
woodlands  in  the  Doomsday  Book  evidence  not  less 
the  primitiveness  of  the  overmastered  than  the  Latin- 
izing character  of  the  overmastering  culture;  but  from 
before  the  days  of  Norman  William  until  now  the  stream 
of  native  development  has  been  receiving  tributaries 
from  the  Roman  source.  As  our  language  is  rich  in 
words  of  Greek  and  Roman  origin,  so  the  thoughts, 
practices,  and  ideals  of  daily  life,  when  this  rises  above 
the  bare  necessities,  reveal  to  the  scrutinizing  glance 
abundant  elements  that  are  part  and  parcel  of  an  inherit- 
ance from  classical  antiquity.  From  one  point  of  view 
classical  antiquity  itself  is  relatively  modern;  there  is  a 
readier  sympathy,  a  closer  affinity  between  an  English- 
man or  American  and  a  cultivated  pagan  of  Athens  or 
Rome  than  seems  possible  between  Anglo-Saxon  and 
oriental  stock. 


Educational  Value  33 

The  genius  may  be  able  from  secondary  sources  so 
to  reconstruct  classical  antiquity  that  he  will  appre- 
hend its  inner  being  and  may  safely  start  out  from  it  in 
the  investigation  of  any  phase  of  mediaeval  or  modern 
development;  but  for  common  men  there  is  no  royal 
road,  there  is  no  safe  approach  except  through  the  study 
of  Greek  and  Latin.  We  are  already  beginning  to  reap 
the  fruits  of  '•'specialization"  in  fields  of  humane  study 
without  a  foundation  in  the  humanities.  In  consequence 
we  see  men  who  are  "specialists"  in  philosophy  flounder- 
ing in  modern  problems  because  they  have  no  solid  footing 
in  Plato  and  Aristotle;  young  historical  scholars  who  will 
compile  the  annals  of  a  county  with  infinite  painstaking 
but  whose  horizon  is  so  narrow  that  their  attempts  at  a 
synthesis  of  movements  appear  grotesque;  and  econo- 
mists and  sociologists  who  are  ''blown  about  with  every 
wind  of  doctrine"  because  they  did  not  have  an  exacting 
drill  in  analytic  reasoning  before  they  undertook  to  trace 
out  the  elusive  phenomena  of  human  relations.  I  have 
come  to  have  an  increasing  distrust  of  the  conclusions  of 
men  laboring  in  these  fields  whose  collegiate  and  uni- 
versity work  consisted  largely  of  lecture  courses  without 
a  strong  admixture  of  mathematics,  physics,  Latin,  and 
Greek;  for  much  listening  to  lecture  courses,  the  com- 
pihng  of  "reports"  from  secondary  sources,  and  "cram- 
ming" for  quizzes  and  examinations  will  often  beget  a 
facile  fluency  in  summarizing  that  with  the  undiscrim- 
inating  may  pass  for  sound  learning.  Of  all  men  the 
interpreters  of  social  phenomena,  whether  from  the  his- 
torical or  the  contemporary  point  of  view,  whether  in  gov- 
ernmental and  institutional,  or  in  domestic  and  private 
relations,  can  least  afford  to  dispense  with  the  training  or 
the  knowledge  derived  from  the  study  of  Greek  and  Latin. 


34  Latin  and  Greek 

V 

Since  the  civilized  nations  of  Europe  participate  in  a 
common  movement  of  culture,  the  corresponding  words 
of  the  modern  languages  met  with  in  the  literatures  have 
the  same  connotations,  with  comparatively  slight  differ- 
ences of  association  and  suggestion.  In  New  York, 
Berlin,  and  Madrid  gentlemen  invited  out  to  dinner  put 
on  a  habit  of  the  same  style;  and  literature  is  language 
in  evening  dress.  Tugend  is  a  fair  equivalent  of  "virtue " ; 
and  as  the  American  child  who  has  seen  our  soldiers 
march  and  drill  will  at  once,  from  the  similarity  of  equip- 
ment, recognize  as  soldiers,  French,  German,  Italian,  or 
Spanish  infantry  or  cavalry  shown  to  him  in  pictures, 
so  without  other  mental  effort  than  that  of  memory  the 
boy  will  associate  with  soldat,  soldato,  soldado  substan- 
tially the  same  groups  of  attributes  as  with  "soldier." 

But  not  so  with  Latin  and  Greek.  The  group  of 
meanings  under  virtus  in  the  Latin  dictionary,  for  exam- 
ple, makes  it  impossible  for  the  young  student  to  proceed 
on  the  assumption  that  virtus  and  "virtue"  are  equiva- 
lent; he  cannot  translate  the  word  as  he  finds  it  in 
different  connections  without  at  least  dimly  realizing 
an  ethical  point  of  view  unlike  that  of  our  day.  Long 
before  he  reaches  Caesar  and  Xenophon  he  will  have  had 
to  make  for  himself  a  new  picture  of  a  soldier,  with  a 
different  mode  of  dress,  with  a  pike  or  a  spear,  with  a  bow 
and  arrow  or  sling,  instead  of  rifle,  bayonet,  and  carbine. 
When  he  begins  to  read  descriptions  of  battles  and  sieges 
and  finds  the  soldier  in  action,  he  is  forced  by  the  exi- 
gencies of  translation  to  visualize  for  himself  military 
engines  of  a  different  type  from  those  with  which  he  is 
familiar  from  common  knowledge,  to  follow  military 
operations  unlike  those  of  modem  times  because  directed 


Educational  Value  35 

without  spyglasses  and  carried  on  without  powder  and 
ball;  the  better  the  teaching  the  more  detailed  and  clear 
will  be  the  picture  both  of  the  units  of  the  miUtary  move- 
ment and  of  the  movement  itself,  made  up  of  elements 
previously  unfamiliar  but  now  plainly  seen  and  brought 
together  in  combination. 

As  with  the  vocabulary  of  the  art  of  war,  which  in  this 
connection  is  especially  valuable  on  account  of  its  con- 
creteness,  so  with  the  vocabularies  in  which  are  recorded 
the  concepts  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans  in  other  fields 
of  action  and  thought.  Feebly  at  first,  but  wdth  greater 
distinctness  and  firmer  grasp  as  he  proceeds,  the  boy 
gradually  gains  from  his  study  of  Latin  and  Greek  not 
merely  a  power  of  analysis  and  generalization  from  given 
data  but  a  power  of  larger  synthesis,  which  will  enable 
him  to  bring  into  new  combinations  the  products  of  a 
disciplined  imagination. 

The  goal  of  classical  scholarship  is  the  ideal  recon- 
struction of  Greek  and  Roman  antiquity.  The  farther 
the  student  advances  and  the  more  real  the  ancient  life 
becomes  to  him,  the  more  flexible  and  alert  will  be  his 
constructive  imagination.  No  other  result  of  classical 
study  is  more  important.  The  man  who  has  gained  the 
power  to  picture  accurately  the  scenes  of  ancient  Athens 
and  Rome  will  find  it  possible  to  combine  in  imagination 
the  elements  of  a  business  situation  in  such  a  way  as  to 
seize  opportunities  and  outflank  his  untrained  competi- 
tors, or  as  a  lawyer  will  supply  convincingly  the  missing 
link  of  evidence,  or  as  a  physician  will  build  up  a  correct 
diagnosis  in  a  case  in  which  the  doctor  who  knows  only 
the  facts  of  medicine  will  see  merely  obscure  and  unre- 
lated symptoms.  And  no  educational  process  is  more 
broadening,  more  liberalizing,  than  the  establishing  of  a 


36  Latin  and  Greek 

point  of  view  upon  a  plane  of  culture  remote  from  our 
own.  from  which  the  student  sees  with  a  certain  per- 
spective the  problems  and  achievements  of  our  time, 
realizing  at  least  the  need  of  caution  in  estimating  the 
true  worth  of  that  which  looms  large  upon  today's 
horizon. 

VI 

It  has  been  well  said  that  the  study  of  the  sciences  of 
Nature  begets  honesty  and  regard  for  truth.  Nature 
will  have  no  sham;  and  the  student  who  learns  her  ways 
cannot  fail  to  be  strengthened  in  the  qualities  of  sincerity 
and  truthfulness.  Honesty,  however,  is  a  negative  virtue, 
and  truth  is  only  the  beginning  of  wisdom.  Can  we  press 
the  sciences  into  service  further  as  vehicles  of  ethical 
instruction ?  No,  for  there  is  a  great  gulf  fixed:  the  forces 
of  Nature  are  devoid  of  moral  discrimination.  As  the 
rain  falls  alike  on  the  just  and  the  unjust,  so  flood,  tor- 
nado, and  earthquake  are  no  respecters  of  persons;  fire 
consumes  the  church  as  readily  as  the  brothel,  only  the 
church  is  more  liable  to  be  struck  by  lightning  because 
of  its  spire  or  bell  tower.  We  turn  to  the  realm  of  organic 
nature,  only  to  be  told  that,  in  the  wild  state,  an  animal 
rarely  dies  a  natural  death,  and  that  living  creatures  are 
arrayed  in  two  classes,  the  hunting  and  the  hunted.  The 
perpetuation  and  improvement  of  types  through  the  lavish 
expenditure  of  the  lives  of  individuals,  and  the  conditions 
formulated  in  the  law  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  are 
alike  repugnant  as  a  basis  for  a  code  of  conduct;  we 
must  look  to  the  anthropological  sciences  to  furnish  a 
foundation  for  either  theoretical  or  practical  ethics. 

The  value  of  the  study  of  literature,  and  particularly 
of  the  Greek  and  Roman  classics,  in  contributing  to  the 
upbuilding  of  character,  lies  in  the  clarifying  of  ethical 


Educational  Value  37 

distinctions  through  the  analysis  of  concepts,  characters, 
and  situations,  and  in  inspiration  to  right  conduct  through 
contact  with  the  highest  ideals.  A  knowledge  of  the 
words  by  which  the  Greeks  and  Romans  designated 
"right"  and  "wrong,"  the  virtues  and  the  vices,  gives 
the  student  a  new  point  of  view  for  the  judgment  of 
actions  and  stimulates  reflection  on  standards  of  conduct 
in  larger  relations.  In  ancient  literature,  free  from  the 
obfuscation  of  modern  theories,  we  see  the  cardinal  virtues 
limned  in  clear  outline:  love  of  country,  loyalty  to  kin, 
devotion  to  duty,  justice,  reverence;  and  over  against 
these,  great  vices — in  laying  the  foundations  of  correct 
moral  judgment,  a  knowledge  of  sin  and  its  consequences 
is  only  less  important  than  a  knowledge  of  virtues.  With 
what  eagerness  does  a  well-taught  class  follow  the  deeds 
and  analyze  the  actions  of  Aeneas!  They  may  now  and 
then  err  in  interpreting  his  conduct,  because  of  an  incom- 
plete understanding  of  the  Roman  point  of  view;  yet 
the  process  of  subjecting  to  critical  examination  the 
motives  of  a  character  of  heroic  stature  on  a  plane  of 
action  remote  from  modern  conditions  and  prejudices 
is  an  ethical  discipline  of  no  mean  value.  The  study  of 
the  masterpieces  of  the  modern  foreign  literatures  is 
ordinarily  less  intensive  than  that  of  the  ancient,  and 
even  when  it  is  intensive,  the  character  types  leave  a  less 
powerful  impress  on  the  youthful  mind;  they  are  too 
much  like  the  men  and  women  that  one  sees  every  day. 
With  the  good  and  the  true  the  beautiful  is  inseparably 
associated;  and  the  fruitfulness  of  humanistic  study  as 
contributing  to  the  development  of  the  higher  nature  was 
never  better  expressed  than  in  an  essay  "Science  in  Educa- 
tion," by  the  distinguished  geologist  Sir  Archibald  Geikie:^ 

'  In  the  volume  Landscape  in  History  (1905),  p.  286. 


38  Latin  and  Greek 

A  training  in  science  and  scientific  methods,  admirable  as 
it  is  in  so  many  ways,  fails  to  supply  those  humanizing  influences 
which  the  older  learning  can  so  well  impart.  For  the  moral 
stimulus  that  comes  from  an  association  with  all  that  is  noblest 
and  best  in  the  literatures  of  the  past,  for  the  culture  and  taste 
that  spring  from  prolonged  contact  with  the  highest  models  of 
literary  expression,  for  the  widening  of  our  sympathies  and  the 
vivifying  of  our  imagination  by  the  study  of  history  and  philos- 
ophy, the  teaching  of  science  has  no  proper  equivalents. 

VII 

No  previous  age  has  equaled  the  present  in  the  mag- 
nitude of  its  undertakings;  and  in  no  age  has  the  nervous 
strain  upon  the  men  directing  the  world's  work  been  so 
great.  Statistics  would  probably  show  that  the  mor- 
tality among  leading  men  in  their  prime  in  our  American 
cities  is  greater  than  in  European  cities  and  greater  than 
it  was  anywhere  in  the  world,  among  the  same  class, 
prior  to  the  extensive  application  of  steam  and  electricity 
to  the  purposes  of  transportation  and  communication. 

The  narrower  the  education  of  a  man  is,  the  less  mar- 
gin does  it  allow  for  the  development  of  those  interests 
to  which,  when  worn  with  the  burden  and  heat  of  the 
day,  he  may  turn  for  recreation.  In  another  generation 
the  world  will  have  adjusted  itself  better  to  the  enormous 
expansion  of  the  possibility  of  extending  over  the  whole 
earth  the  ramifications  of  influence  centered  in  a  single 
brain;  meanwhile,  no  aspect  of  the  early  and  extreme 
"specialization"  of  the  present  time  is  more  unfortunate 
than  this,  that  by  allowing  a  man  in  the  educational 
period  to  confine  his  interests  and  activities  in  a  narrow 
groove  it  deprives  him  of  that  familiarity  with  the  larger 
aspects  of  culture  which  is  at  the  same  time  a  means  of 
relaxation  and  a  tonic.     No  studies  lay  a  broader  and 


Educational  Value  39 

surer  foundation  than  do  Greek  and  Latin  for  the  appre- 
ciation of  the  things  of  the  spirit  in  all  forms  of  mani- 
festation, whether  in  substance,  as  in  the  fine  arts,  or 
in  less  material  media  of  expression.  Linguistic  details, 
like  the  formulae  of  mathematics  or  chemistry,  may 
become  obscured  with  the  passing  of  the  years;  but  the 
impress  of  a  well-ordered  course  of  classical  study  will 
remain,  making  life  not  only  more  fruitful  and  effective^ 
but  more  refined  and  more  open  to  the  influences  which 
make  living  worth  while.^ 

•  Of  especial  interest  in  this  connection  are  the  letters  of  Mr.  James 
Loeb  and  Mr.  William  Sloane  (pp.  211,  217). 


CHAPTER  III 

LATIN  AND  GREEK  IN    OUR   COURSES   OF   STUDY 

There  yet  remains  the  question  whether  Latin  and 
Greek  as  educational  instruments  are  being  utilized  in 
our  country  in  such  a  way  as  to  yield  the  best  results  for 
training  and  culture.  To  this  question  a  negative  answer 
may  unhesitatingly  be  given;  but  the  causes  are  deep- 
seated  and  complex. 

I 

The  amount  of  time  given  to  the  classics  in  the  average 
school  in  which  Latin  and  Greek  are  taught,  and  in  the 
schools  in  which  instruction  is  given  in  Latin  alone,  is 
insufficient;  and  in  many  colleges  the  trend  is  so  strongly 
in  the  direction  of  other  subjects  that  a  large  proportion 
of  the  students  who  most  need  the  training  afforded  by 
the  study  of  Latin  and  Greek  are  diverted  from  the  pur- 
suit of  these  languages  and  devote  no  time  to  them  while 
in  college. 

Let  us  suppose  that  a  graduate  from  a  high  school 
with  four  years  of  Latin  enters  college  and  pursues  the 
subject  through  his  college  course  for  four  hours  a  week. 
If  he  had  five  exercises  in  Latin  each  week  in  the  high 
school,  the  total  amount  of  his  Latin  in  eight  years  of 
study  will  be  36  year-hours,  a  year-hour  being  reckoned 
as  one  exercise  a  week  during  the  school  year.  We  may 
suppose  that  the  same  student  had  Greek  for  five  exer- 
cises each  week  for  two  years  in  the  high  school,  and  for 
four  hours  a  week  for  two  years  in  college;  the  total 
amount  of  his  work  in  Greek  will  be  18  year-hours. 

40 


Courses  of  Study  41 

Americans  frequently  speak  as  if  we  were  working  out 
our  educational  problems  in  isolation;  yet  we  are  a  part 
of  the  European  cultural  movement,  and  the  anomalies 
of  our  present  situation  are  in  no  small  degree  due  to  the 
attempt  on  the  one  side  to  superimpose  a  German  uni- 
versity upon  a  college  of  English  origin,  and  on  the  other  to 
shape  all  secondary  education  along  the  lines  of  prepara- 
tion for  college.  Neither  the  experience  nor  the  practical 
conclusions  of  continental  education  should  be  lightly 
put  aside  by  us;  and  since  reforms  have  within  recent 
years  become  operative  in  the  secondary  schools  of  both 
Germany  and  France,  it  is  worth  while  to  bring  into 
contrast  with  American  conditions  the  amount  of  time 
given  to  Latin  and  Greek  in  the  different  types  of  the 
Gymnasium  and  in  the  Lycee. 

The  time  devoted  to  Latin  in  the  Gymnasium  in  Prussia 
(since  1902)  is  68  year-hours,  in  Saxony  71  to  73,  in 
Baden  72,  in  Bavaria  66,  and  in  Wiirtemberg  81;  in  the 
Realgymnasium,  in  Prussia  43  to  46  year-hours,  in  Saxony 
54,  in  Baden  56,  in  Bavaria  36,  and  in  Wiirttemberg,  81; 
in  the  Reformgymnasium  at  Frankfort,  52  year-hours.^ 
The  average  exercise  in  the  German  secondary  schools 
is  five  to  ten  minutes  longer  than  in  our  high  schools; 
but  without  taking  this  into  account  we  see  that  the 
student  of  the  Gymnasium  has  on  the  average  nearly 
twice  as  many  year-hours  of  Latin  as  the  American 
student  who  carries  the  study  through  his  entire  course 
in  school  and  college,  and  more  than  three  times  as  many 
year-hours  as  the  student  who  pursued  the  subject  for 
four  years  in  the  high  school  and  then  dropped  it.  The 
Latin  requirement  just  given  for  the  Prussian  Gymna- 

■  For  these  statistics  I  am  indebted  to  Commissioner  of  Education 
Elmer  E.  Brown  and  Acting  Commissioner  L.  A.  Kalbach. 


42  Latin  and  Greek 

slum  added  six  hours  to  the  requirement  in  force  from 
1892  to  1902,  for  the  reason  that  the  reduction  of  the 
amount  of  Latin  which  was  accompHshed  by  the  "reform" 
of  1892  was,  after  ten  years  of  trial,  considered  as  having 
perceptibly  weakened  the  gymnasial  training.  Among 
the  advocates  of  a  full  classical  course,  in  the  debates 
which  marked  the  period  of  transition,  was  the  distin- 
guished physicist  Helmholtz,  who  maintained  "the 
superiority  of  the  classical  languages  over  the  modern  as 
a  vehicle  for  mental  training,  on  the  ground  that  the 
native  language  and  the  other  modern  languages,  which 
are  learned  chiefly  by  oral  practice  and  imitation,  or  in  so 
far  as  they  are  so  learned,  cannot  so  exercise  and  develop 
inteUigent,  logical  thought  as  the  classical  languages 
with  their  full  system  of  inflectional  endings  and  their 
concise  and  elaborate  methods  of  showing  the  gram- 
matical relation  of  the  individual  parts  of  the  sentences 
to  each  other  and  to  the  whole.  "^ 

In  the  Realgymnasium  also,  which  offers  no  work  in 
Greek,  and  has  a  curriculum  in  some  respects  similar  to 
our  Latin-scientific  course,  the  German  student  every- 
where except  in  Bavaria  gives  more  time  to  Latin  than 
does  the  American  youth  who  pursues  the  subject  for 
five  periods  a  week  in  the  high  school  and  four  in  college; 
he  devotes  to  it  more  than  twice  as  much  time  as  is 
allowed  for  the  subject  in  most  American  secondary 
schools.  Greek  averages  36  year-hours  in  the  Gymnasium. 
We  shall  not  go  far  astray  if,  taking  into  account  the 
difference  in  length  between  the  German  and  the  Ameri- 
can recitation  period,  we  estimate  that  the  average 
German  student  who  has  completed  the  course  of  the 
Gymnasium  has  had  in  Latin  the  equivalent  of  80  year- 

'  School  Review,  X  (1902),  466. 


Courses  of  Study  43 

hours  of  the  American  high  school :  that  is,  he  has  spent 
in  Latin  classes  about  four  times  as  many  minutes  as 
the  American  high-school  graduate;  and  that  to  Greek 
he  has  given  considerably  more  time  than  is  ordinarily 
devoted  to  the  subject  in  an  American  classical  course 
in  both  school  and  college.^ 

In  1908,  out  of  a  total  of  31,622  students  entering 
18  out  of  21  German  universities  (Munich,  Erlangen, 
and  Wiirzburg  not  reporting)  24,876,  or  78.5  per  cent, 
were  graduates  of  the  Gymnasia;  4,417,  or  14  per  cent, 
of  Realgymnasia;  and  only  7 . 5  per  cent  entered  without 
Latin  or  Greek.^ 

The  curriculum  of  the  French  secondary  schools  under- 
went a  thoroughgoing  revision  in  1902.  The  course  of 
the  Lycee  previous  to  that  time  had  been  extremely  narrow; 
and  among  the  influences  which  determined  the  direction 
of  reform  was  an  acquaintance  with  American  high 
schools,  the  many-sidedness  of  the  work  of  which  naturally 
impressed  educational  leaders  of  France  who  chafed 
under  the  hmitations  of  the  old  system.  Yet  in  the 
reformed  French  secondary  school  the  student  who 
chooses  Latin  in  the  ''first  cycle "^  must  pursue  it  for 
four  years  and  devote  to  it  not  less  than  26  year-hours; 
while  in  three  out  of  the  four  courses  open  to  him  in  the 
"second  cycle,"  covering  three  years,  he  must  continue 
Latin,  devoting  to  it  9  or  11  year-hours  in  the  classical 
course  ("Section  A"),  7,  9,  or  11  in  the  modern  language 
course  ("Section  B"),  and  7  in  the  Latin-scientific  course 
("Section  C");   only  one  of  the  four  courses,  the  science 

1  The  number  of  year-hours  of  Greek  in  the  Gynmasium  in  the  differ- 
ent German  states  is  as  follows:  in  Prussia,  Baden,  and  Bavaria,  36; 
in  Saxony,  36  to  42;  in  Wilrttemberg,  40. 

'  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education  (1909),  I,  493. 

»  Educational  Review,  XXV  (1903),  143;  Report  of  the  Commissioner 
of  Education  (1902),  I,  691. 


44  Latin  and  Greek 

and  modern  language  course  ("Section  D"),  makes  no 
requirement  of  Latin.  Under  this  arrangement  the  great 
majority  of  the  graduates  of  the  Lycee  who  started  with 
Latin  \vill  have  had  a  minimum  of  33  year-hours  in  the 
subject;  as  the  recitation  periods  in  secondary  schools 
in  France  are  longer  than  with  us,  it  is  plain  that  the 
French  student  spends  in  Latin  classes  about  twice  as 
much  time  as  the  American  student  who  pursues  the 
subject  for  four  years  in  the  high  school,  quite  as  much 
time,  in  fact,  as  our  student  devotes  to  Latin  who  studies 
it  for  five  periods  a  week  in  the  high  school  and  for  four 
hours  a  week  during  his  entire  college  course.  To  Greek 
6  year-hours  are  devoted  in  the  ancient-language  section 
of  the  "first  cycle"  and  10  hours  in  the  classical  course 
of  the  "second  cycle,"  with  2  hours  optional,  making  a 
total  of  16  or  18  year-hours  for  the  French  student  who 
completes  the  classical  work  of  the  Lycee;  the  amount  of 
time  given  to  Greek  is  about  equal  to  that  spent  by  an 
American  student  who  commences  the  study  of  Greek 
in  the  third  year  of  the  high  school  and  continues  it 
through  the  Sophomore  year  in  college.  Latin  is  begun 
in  the  Lycee  at  the  age  of  ten  or  eleven,  and  is  continu- 
ously studied  for  seven  years;  in  the  Gymnasium  the 
pupil  commences  the  study  of  Latin  when  ten  years  of 
age,  and  continues  it  for  nine  years. 

In  giving  Latin  so  prominent  a  place  in  secondary 
schools,  and  in  devoting  so  much  time  to  Greek,  it  cannot 
be  said  that  those  responsible  for  the  reformed  curricula 
in  Germany  and  France^  have  been  unduly  influenced 

'  There  is  at  the  present  time  much  dissatisfaction  with  the  work 
of  the  reformed  Lycee;  the  results  appear  to  be  inferior  to  those  of  the 
old  system  of  a  single  course,  predominantly  classical,  with  limited 
electives.  See  the  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education  (1909),  I, 
423-27. 


Courses  of  Study  45 

by  tradition.  It  is  true  that  European  educators  are 
disposed  to  move  more  slowly  in  the  adoption  of  reforms 
than  we  in  this  country  are,  and  that  no  step  is  taken 
without  an  attempt  to  forecast  all  possible  consequences. 
But  Latin  and  Greek  have  their  place  in  German  and 
French  secondary  schools  today  because  they  have  been 
proved,  not  by  theory  but  by  experience,  to  be  the  most 
effective  instruments  available  for  certain  phases  of 
secondary  instruction;  and  the  extension  of  the  study  of 
them  over  so  many  years  is  in  accordance  wdth  the  basal 
principle  well  stated  by  Compayre:^ 

The  virtue  of  secondary  teaching  lies,  in  large  measure,  in 
its  duration,  in  its  slow  influence  upon  the  intellect.  The  best 
teachers  need  the  help  of  time,  if  they  wish,  not  to  furnish  the 
memory  with  hastily  acquired  and  badly  digested  knowledge, 
but  to  act  upon  intellectual  habits  and  accomplish  the  educa- 
tion of  the  mind,  which  is  truly  the  essential  aim  of  secondary 
instruction. 

In  recent  years,  as  the  late  Commissioner  W.  T.  Harris 
pointed  out,  marked  progress  has  been  made  in  our 
secondary  schools  in  the  concentration  of  work  upon  a 
small  group  of  studies  considered  of  prime  importance, 
in  place  of  the  scattering  which  was  formerly  prevalent. 
One  of  the  studies  assigned  as  by  common  consent  to  a 
central  place  is  Latin.^  Yet  if  we  examine  the  Latin 
course  of  our  high  schools  we  find  a  pitiable  condition. 
The  machinery  of  secondary  administration,  taking  its 
Latin  standard  from  the  requirements  of  colleges  for 
admission,  is  attempting,  with  the  use  of  five  or  even 
four  short  periods  a  week,  to  secure  the  results  of  Latin 

'  Educational  Review,  XXV  (1903),  133. 
2  P.  4. 


46  Latin  and  Greek 

study  that  in  Germany  and  France/  with  much  better 
average  teaching,  are  secured  in  five  or  six  years  with 
six,  seven,  or  eight  longer  exercises  each  week.  The  later 
age  at  which  the  American  student  commences  the  study 
of  Latin  is  a  doubtful  advantage.  Losing  sight  of  the 
basal  principle  laid  down  by  Compayr^,  our  secondary 
education  as  a  whole  is  making  the  study  of  Latin  above 
all  else  a  hurried  cramming  of  facts.  This  is  in  accord- 
ance with  the  spirit  of  the  age  manifest  among  us,  which 
demands  immediate  results  and  in  its  eagerness  for 
knowledge — knowledge  being  frequently  assumed  to  be 
the  panacea  of  all  ills — tends  to  lose  sight  of  the  truth 
that  the  development  of  power  is  the  fundamental  aim 
of  education,  that  the  acquisition  and  educational  use  of 
this  or  that  mass  of  facts  becomes  valuable  primarily  as 
a  means  to  an  end,  and  only  secondarily  through  the 
retention  of  the  facts  themselves.  In  the  comparatively 
few  secondary  schools  in  which  instruction  in  Greek  is  still 
given  the  position  of  this  study  is  relatively  better  than 
that  of  Latin;  for  the  student  of  Greek,  having  already 
had  two  years  of  Latin,  attacks  the  second  classical  lan- 
guage to  greater  advantage,  and  the  average  teaching  of 
Greek  is  better. 

I  A  comparison  with  English  secondary  schools  in  this  respect  seems 
unnecessary.  The  English  have  awakened  to  the  fact,  perceived  earlier 
by  the  French,  that  the  American  high  school  presents  in  the  elasticity 
of  its  curriculum  an  element  worthy  of  imitation,  and  they  are  now 
expanding  their  system  of  secondary  education.  But  as  the  reports 
are  confirmed  regarding  the  inferiority  of  the  American  Rhodes  Fellows 
at  Oxford  in  classical  training  not  only  to  English  and  Scotch  students 
of  the  same  age  but  even  to  students  from  the  colonies,  no  further  evi- 
dence is  needed  to  emphasize  the  superiority  of  British  secondary 
instruction  in  the  classics  to  our  own.  The  British  student  who  takes 
Latin  ordinarily  begins  to  study  it  at  the  age  of  ten  or  eleven  years. 


Courses  of  Study  47 

II 

Educational  experts  have  informed  us  that  in  our 
American  schools  about  two  years  are  lost  between  the 
first  grade  and  the  end  of  the  high-school  course.  This 
means  that  the  student  at  the  age  of  eighteen  is  studying 
subjects  which  he  should  have  had  at  the  age  of  sixteen; 
and  that  if  he  goes  to  college,  he  must  either  attempt, 
without  adequate  preparation,  to  do  work  requiring  a 
foundation  of  previous  training  which  he  has  not  had, 
or  devote  two  years  of  his  college  course  to  studies  which 
belong  more  properly  in  the  secondary  field,  or  endeavor 
to  effect  a  compromise  and  ride  both  horses.  In  many 
of  the  smaller  colleges,  and  in  the  arts  department  of 
some  universities,  the  work  of  the  first  two  years  is  wholly 
or  in  great  part  prescribed,  and  if  a  student  enters  with 
Latin  and  Greek  the  administrative  system  tends  to  keep 
him  in  the  same  lines  of  study  until  he  has  had  six  years 
of  Latin,  or  about  28  year-hours,  and  three  or  four  years, 
approximately  14  or  18  year-hours,  of  Greek.  In  not  a 
few  of  the  larger  institutions  offering  collegiate  work, 
however,  the  rapid  extension  of  the  elective  system,  due 
in  part  to  the  influence  of  a  superimposed  university 
system  under  the  name  of  graduate  school,  has  caused 
the  secondary  character  of  the  first  two  years  of  under- 
graduate work  to  become  obscured. 

We  are  confronted  not  with  a  theory  but  with  a  con- 
dition. It  is  not  necessary  to  cite  the  reports  of  entrance- 
examination  boards;  the  concurrent  testimony  of  those 
who  teach  Freshman  classes  East  and  West  goes  to  prove 
how  crude  and  unformed  intellectually,  how  like  an 
"unlicked  cub"  is  the  average  first-year  student;  at 
how  great  a  disadvantage  he  appears,  in  point  of  mental 
training,  when  compared  with  a  classical  student  of  the 


48  Latin  and  Greek 

same  ago  from  the  English  pubhc  school,  the  Gymnasium, 
or  the  Lycee;  and  how  much  he  needs,  as  an  aid  to  self- 
discovery  and  self-direction,  the  control  of  a  firm  mascu- 
Vmv  hand  in  studies  requiring  concentration,  exactitude, 
and  grasp,  and  effective  also  in  developing  power  of 
expression. 

Instructors  with  the  university  point  of  view  naturally 
desire  to  have  the  college  student  introduced  to  their 
subjects  as  soon  as  possible,  and  to  pursue  these  as  far  as 
he  can;  hence  the  extraordinary  multiplication  of  courses 
open  in  many  institutions  to  undergraduates;^  hence 
also,  in  recent  years,  the  projecting  downward  into 
the  Freshman  work,  not  only  of  subjects  before  offered 
exclusively  in  later  years,  but  even  of  courses  in  which 
the  instruction,  following  university  methods,  is  given 
largely  by  lectures.  Prominent  in  this  class  of  subjects 
is  history.  There  is  no  disagreement  among  educators 
regarding  either  the  necessity  of  work  in  history  for  all 
students  who  wish  to  have  a  liberal  education,  or  the 
desirableness  of  maintaining  a  continuity  of  instruction 
for  a  period  of  years;  yet  the  time  spent  upon  history  in 
the  Freshman  year  might  be  devoted  with  greater  profit  to 
other  subjects,  and  the  man  who  is  to  "specialize"  in 
history  and  has  had  only  the  ordinary  high-school  course 
in  Latin  will  in  the  end  make  a  better  historical  scholar  if 
he  puts  upon  Latin  or  Greek  the  hours  of  Freshman  work, 
which  he  is  tempted  to  give  to  his  favorite  subject.  In 
some  institutions  no  other  single  factor  has  been  so  potent 
to  turn  students  away  from  the  study  of  either  ancient 
language  as  the  throwing  open  to  Freshmen  of  lecture 

»  There  is  a  noteworthy  paper  by  President  Bryan  in  the  Educational 
Review  for  February,  1906  (XXXI,  135-40),  on  "The  Excessive  Expan- 
sion of  the  Course  of  Study  in  American  Universities." 


Courses  of  Study  49 

courses  in  history  which,  from  the  nature  of  the  subject 
and  the  methods  of  instruction,^  are  less  exacting  in  the 
requirements  of  daily  preparation,  and  less  difficult  to 
''pass."  The  historical  field  is  attractive  to  all  students 
having  a  spark  of  human  interest;  but  even  the  Fresh- 
man is  not  slow  to  find  the  line  of  least  resistance,  and  not 
loath  to  follow  it.  In  these  days  when  the  study  of  history 
lays  a  just  emphasis  upon  the  knowledge  and  use  of 
original  sources  it  seems  anomalous  that  students  should 
be  able  to  come  up  into  advanced  historical  work  and 
try  to  become  historians  without  the  ability  to  read  the 
Magna  Charta  in  the  original.  An  even  more  striking 
anomaly  is  the  teaching  of  Greek  history  in  college 
courses  by  men  who  know  not  a  word  of  Greek. 

So  long  as  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts  was  given 
only  to  graduates  who  had  had  Latin  and  Greek  in  college, 
that  fact  was  influential  in  maintaining  both  the  ancient 
classical  languages  upon  a  firm  foundation  not  only  in 
the  colleges  but  also  in  the  schools;  but  now,  in  the 
unsettling  which  accompanied  the  reaction  from  the  old 
system  to  that  of  the  ''omnibus"  degree,  the  pendulum 
has  swung  too  far  the  other  way.  Although  under  the 
system  of  the  "omnibus"  degree,  students  who  elect 
Latin  and  Greek  are  disposed  to  take  more  courses  and 
hours  than  formerly,  and  although  the  work  of  the  aver- 
age class  is  of  better  quality  than  when  Latin  and  Greek 
were  required  for  graduation,  a  relatively  small  propor- 
tion of  college  students  are  now  brought  into  contact 
with  classical  studies;  viewing  the  American  college  in 
the  light  of  its  complex  function  as  a  preparatory  school 

1  How  difficult  our  college  teachers  of  history  find  the  problem  of 
adjusting  their  work  to  classes  containing  large  numbers  of  Freshmen 
may  be  seen  in  the  discussion  published  in  the  Report  of  the  American 
Historical  Association  for  1905,  Vol.  I,  149-74. 


50  Latin  and  Greek 

for  the  professions  and  as  a  school  of  Hberal  studies,  we 
are  warranted  in  the  assertion  that  in  most  colleges  the 
resources  of  classical  instruction  are  not  being  utiUzed 
in  a  way  to  minister  adequately  to  clearly  defined  educa- 
tional needs.  There  is  current  a  misconception  in  regard 
to  the  nature  and  aims  of  classical  study,  which  by  many 
college  students  and  professors  is  looked  upon  as  some- 
thing technical  and  apart  from  ordinary  scholastic 
interests,  which  in  fact  should  be  pursued  only  by  those 
who  will  "speciaUze"  with  a  view  to  becoming  teachers 
of  Latin  and  Greek. 

Ill 
The  reasons  why  the  older  professional  schools  in  the 
United  States,  with  few  exceptions,  were  established  in 
educational  isolation,  apart  from  colleges  and  universities, 
are  historical,  and  need  not  be  entered  into  here.  One 
important  consequence  is  that  up  to  the  present  time  it 
has  not  been  possible  to  make  a  satisfactory  adjustment 
between  the  professional  schools  as  a  class  and  the  other 
units  of  our  educational  system.  The  cleavage  is  nar- 
rowest between  the  college  maintaining  the  classical 
course  and  the  theological  seminary;  until  recently  the 
gap  has  been  broader,  and  much  more  difficult  to  bridge, 
in  the  case  of  schools  of  engineering,  medicine,  and  law. 
In  the  past  twenty-five  years  these  three  classes  of  schools 
have  made  great  advances  in  the  enlarging  and  strength- 
ening of  their  curricula.  Such  expansion  has  involved, 
directly  or  indirectly,  a  readjustment  of  the  requirements 
for  admission.  As  was  to  be  expected,  the  tendency 
has  been  to  exact  or  encourage  a  more  extended  prepara- 
tion of  the  student  before  entering  upon  professional 
studies;  and  of  late  many  professional  schools  have 
thrown  their  influence  in  the  direction  of  making  a  fixed 


Courses  of  Study  51 

requirement  of  the  whole  or  a  part  of  a  college  course  as 
furnishing  the  desired  preliminarj"  training  in  the  best  way. 
Meanwhile,  however,  the  college  course,  toward  the 
utilization  of  which  for  preliminary  training  the  pro- 
fessional schools  have  been  advancing,  has  in  many 
institutions  undergone  a  complete  transformation. 
Twenty-five  years  ago  it  was  a  fairly  stable  aggregation 
of  studies,  which  were  pursued  in  a  fixed  order,  and  which, 
when  viewed  as  a  whole,  were  assumed  to  be  both  dis- 
ciplinary and  liberaHzing.  If  a  student  having  a  college 
diploma  entered  a  professional  school,  the  diploma  itself 
was  an  index  of  his  preparation  in  respect  to  range  as 
well  as  quality  of  work.  But  at  present,  such  is  the 
chaotic  condition  of  many  college  curricula  and  so  great 
is  the  freedom  of  choice  offered  to  the  student  that  the 
professional  schools  are  confronted  with  a  twofold  diffi- 
culty. In  the  first  place,  they  frequently  make  complaint 
that  the  students  who  now  enter  with  a  college  diploma 
are  not  as  a  class  so  well  able  to  carry  the  heavy  and 
exacting  work  of  the  professional  curriculum,  which 
allows  slight  freedom  of  choice,  as  were  the  students  who 
came  up  through  the  old  college  course  of  studies  wholly 
or  in  large  part  prescribed,^  and,  in  the  second  place,  the 
college  curriculum  has  in  many  institutions  so  lost  all 
semblance  of  unity  and  consistency  that  whether  two 
years  of  college  work,  or  the  whole  course,  should  be  made 
a  fixed  requirement  for  admission  to  the  professional 
school,  it  would  be  unsafe  to  assume  that  the  student 
entering  ^vith  such  preliminary  training  had  had  any 
particular  study  (excepting  elementary  English)  or  had 
even  learned  how  to  study  according  to  the  professional 
standard. 

'  Cf.  pp.  85,  143-44. 


52  Latin  and  Greek 

The  case  of  Latin  and  Greek  in  relation  to  professional 
studies  is  the  same  as  that  of  mathematics  and  other 
more  difficult  subjects  the  "practical"  bearing  of  which 
is  not  on  the  surface  obvious,  but  of  which  the  pursuit 
has  been  considered  desirable  as  a  part  of  a  general  edu- 
cation. It  is  already  evident  that  professional  compe- 
tition in  this  country  will  be  much  more  severe  in  the 
future  than  in  the  past;  he  who  will  serve  the  next  gen- 
eration acceptably  as  a  lawyer,  a  physician,  an  engineer, 
or  a  clergyman  must  have  an  equipment  superior  to  the 
average  equipment  of  the  present  time.  The  question 
is  not  how  the  man  of  exceptional  gifts  may  be  made 
ready  for  his  life  work;  it  is  rather  by  what  process  the 
average  man  who  desires  to  study  engineering,  medicine, 
law,  or  theology  may  best  be  trained  in  preparation  for 
the  technical  studies  through  which  he  will  obtain  his 
professional  equipment. 

The  opinion  was  formerly  prevalent  that  preparation 
for  engineering  studies  should  above  all  else  emphasize 
mathematics  and  physics;  for  a  medical  course,  chemistry 
and  biology;  and  for  a  course  in  law,  studies  in  history 
and  economics.  Now,  upon  second  thought  and  in  the 
light  of  experience,  leaders  in  the  field  of  professional 
education  are  agreed  in  the  position  that  what  is  needed 
as  a  preparation  to  enter  upon  a  technical  course  is  a 
trained  mind  rather  than  a  premature  amassing  of  infor- 
mation along  technical  lines.  "  Let  us  have  a  trained  man; 
we  will  give  him  the  professional  knowledge  and  skill," 
is  a  remark  frequently  made  today.  This  throws  the 
whole  question  of  the  preparation  of  prospective  profes- 
sional students  into  the  domain  of  a  general  or,  as  many 
prefer  to  say,  a  liberal  education. 

The  subject  of  preparation  for  professional  courses  is 


Courses  of  Study  53 

too  large  to  be  entered  upon  here;  and  abundant  testi- 
monj'  in  regard  to  the  place  which  the  ancient  classics 
should  have  in  it  is  given  in  the  following  symposia. 
Men  who  have  forgotten  much  of  their  Latin  and  Greek, 
and  who  find  themselves  handicapped  by  lack  of  technical 
knowledge,  sometimes  express  the  wish  that  they  had 
spent  upon  professional  subjects  the  time  which  they  gave 
to  the  classics  and  mathematics,  forgetting  that  without 
the  power  gained  by  the  training  of  these  basal  subjects 
their  command  of  technical  data  would  be  even  less 
adequate.  The  trend  of  opinion,  so  far  as  it  is  definitely 
formulated,  seems  to  be  that,  under  present  conditions, 
the  prospective  clergyman,  lawyer,  physician,  and 
engineer  should  alike  have  an  extended  training  in  Eng- 
lish, both  language  and  literature;  should  have  a  year 
of  "college"  mathematics,  part  of  the  time  being  devoted 
to  a  brief  review  of  the  history  of  mathematics  and  a  pres- 
entation of  the  relation  of  mathematics  to  other  subjects; 
a  course  of  "college"  physics,  biology,  and  either  chem- 
istry or  geology,  or  both,  it  being  understood  that  the 
science  courses  should  be  introductory  in  the  larger 
sense,  the  subjects  being  presented  in  their  relations  to 
the  sum  of  knowledge  as  well  as  in  their  fundamental 
principles;  introductory  courses  in  economics  and 
philosophy;  courses  in  French  and  German,  with  an 
opportunity  to  take  work  also  in  Spanish  and  Italian; 
one  or  two  yesirs  of  "college"  history,  articulated  with 
the  history  of  the  schools;  two  years  of  "college"  Latin; 
at  least  two  years  of  "college"  Greek  for  students  looking 
forward  to  the  study  of  theology,  one  or  two  years  for 
prospective  students  of  law  and  medicine,  and  a  year  of 
"college"  Greek  or  additional  pure  mathematics  for  the 
prospective   engineer. 


54  Latin  and  Greek 

The  professions,  except  the  ministry,  are  at  the  present 
time  not  suffering  from  a  lack  of  candidates;  the  number 
of  those  preparing  for  medicine,  law,  and  engineering 
is  in  excess  of  the  present  demand.  In  education  the 
race  is  not  to  the  swift;  in  rendering  to  society  the  service 
of  developing  an  educated  leadership  the  professional 
schools  should  remember  that  quality  is  of  greater  impor- 
tance than  numbers,  and  that  one  first-class  man  in  any 
profession  is  of  greater  value  to  the  world  than  many 
men  of  second  or  third  rank.  Though  the  advance  of 
science  in  modern  times  has  vastly  increased  the  sum  of 
knowledge,  has  opened  up  illimitable  vistas  and  has 
effected  changes  in  educational  perspective,  the  enthusi- 
asm of  research  should  not  blind  us  to  the  fact  that  the 
vast  bulk  of  new  knowledge,  in  the  anthropological 
sciences  as  well  as  in  the  sciences  of  nature,  is  not  well 
adapted  for  use  in  elementary  or  secondary  or  even  colle- 
giate training.  No  substitute  has  yet  been  found  to 
take  the  place  of  Latin  and  Greek  as  educational  instru- 
ments, not  only  for  a  general  training  but  also  for  the 
training  that  looks  forward  to  professional  study. 

IV 

The  teaching  of  Latin  among  us  suffers  from  the  same 
causes  which  affect  the  teaching  of  other  subjects.  These 
are,  chiefly,  on  the  one  hand,  lack  of  knowledge  of  Latin, 
lack  of  a  clear  perception  of  the  aim  of  Latin  study,  and 
lack  of  a  serious  purpose  in  teaching;  on  the  other  hand, 
too  many  recitations  in  the  day,  the  lack  of  books  of 
reference  and  of  illustrative  material  for  the  classroom, 
and,  in  the  high  schools,  the  nervous  haste  which  comes 
from  attempting  to  do  in  a  given  time  more  than  can 
possibly  be  done  well. 


Courses  of  Study  55 

These  defects  are  in  part  due  to  the  fact  that  our 
secondary  teaching  is  in  no  inconsiderable  degree  in  the 
hands  of  young  women  without  adequate  preparation 
for  their  work,  who  engage  in  teaching  as  a  makeshift, 
and  either  grace  the  schoolroom  with  their  presence 
briefly  on  the  way  from  the  commencement  stage  to  the 
altar  or,  if  they  remain  for  a  period  of  years,  continue  to 
teach  without  an  ambition  for  self-improvement.  These 
must  not  be  confused  with  the  large  class  of  conscientious 
teachers  who  are  striving  to  do  their  work  in  the  best 
way  but  whose  acquaintance  with  Latin  is  so  meager 
that  they  are  handicapped  at  every  step  and  turn  to  new 
"methods"  of  instruction  as  a  drowning  man  clutches 
at  a  straw.  Over  against  both  these  classes  stands  the 
large  body  of  well-prepared  and  earnest  teachers  of 
Latin  and  Greek  who  are  accomplishing  results  that 
are  more  than  creditable  when  we  take  into  account  the 
disadvantages  under  which  they  labor  in  the  lack  of  time 
for  the  proper  doing  of  their  work  and  in  the  lack  of 
facilities.  All  honor  to  this  loyal  legion  of  classical 
teachers  who,  laboring  often  in  a  commercial  or  philistine 
atmosphere,  have  nevertheless  retained  their  enthusiasm 
for  sound  scholarship,  have  constantly  enlarged  their 
horizon  of  knowledge,  and  have  continued  to  be  an 
inspiration  and  help  to  others. 

Not  a  few  of  those  who  have  failed  to  appreciate  the 
value  of  the  study  of  Latin  and  Greek  think  of  these 
subjects  as  they  were  taught  thirty  or  forty  years  ago  by 
a  certain  class  of  schoolmasters  who  presented  the  Greeks 
and  Romans  as  unearthly  beings  raised  on  a  pedestal, 
before  whom  the  modern  world  should  fall  down  and  wor- 
ship; viewed  their  language  as  an  intricate  mechanism,  and 
ground  the  student  upon  forms  and  constructions  without 


56  Latin  and  Greek 

a  scintilla  of  literary  appreciation.  It  is  sometimes 
difficult  for  the  critic  to  realize  that  the  teaching  of 
Latin  and  Greek  has  shared  in  the  educational  progress 
of  the  last  half-century;  that  the  good  classical  teacher 
of  today  is  not  merely  the  teacher  of  a  language  but  also, 
so  far  as  time  and  opportunity  permit,  the  interpreter 
of  a  civilization  of  which  the  language  is  only  one  mani- 
festation; and  that  the  aim  of  instruction  in  the  ancient 
classics  is  not  merely  to  secure  the  best  results  of  close 
and  exact  language  study  but  also  to  inspire  an  appre- 
ciation of  literature  and,  in  a  word,  "to  accumulate  upon 
the  present  age  the  influence  of  all  that  was  best  and 
greatest  in  the  life  of  the  past."  This  aim  is  sometimes 
lost  sight  of  by  teachers  of  good  ability  who  have  had  an 
inadequate  or  one-sided  preparation,  and  even  by  young 
Doctors  of  Philosophy  whose  perspective  has  been  warped 
by  concentration  of  study  upon  one  part  of  a  great  field; 
but  our  classical  teaching  as  a  whole  is  directed  toward 
high  ideals,  and  will  not  fall  short  of  its  opportunities. 
No  study  is  more  interesting  to  students  of  any  age  than 
Latin  and  Greek  when  properly  taught. 

That  so  large  a  proportion  of  our  teachers  of  the 
classics  are  ill  prepared  is  not  more  the  fault  of  the  teacher 
than  of  the  system.  So  long  as  the  compensation  of  the 
teacher  remains  as  low  as  at  present  in  most  schools  and 
many  colleges,  so  long  as  the  tenure  of  positions  in  public 
high  schools  is  subject  to  the  uncertainty  of  an  annual 
reappointment,  so  long,  finally,  as  administrative  officers 
in  passing  upon  the  fitness  of  candidates  frequently 
attach  little  weight  to  the  range  and  quality  of  scholastic 
attainments,  it  may  be  expected  that  the  average  of 
preparation  for  classical  teaching,  which  involves  a  long 
and  expensive  course  of  study  for  him  who  wishes  the 


Courses  of  Study  57 

best,  will  be  raised  but  slowly.  The  need  of  exacting  a 
higher  standard  of  preparation  in  the  selection  of  teachers 
for  secondary  schools  is  in  some  places  already  realized; 
and  there  are  hopeful  indications  of  a  more  generous 
financial  support. 

In  order  to  remedy  our  failure  as  a  nation  to  utilize 
Latin  and  Greek  as  we  should  in  our  educational  system 
it  will  be  necessary  first  of  all  to  extend  the  study  of  Latin 
downward  so  that  it  may  be  pursued  by  students  for 
two  or  three  years  before  the  present  high-school  age; 
the  study  of  Latin  should  be  commenced  in  the  seventh 
or  sixth  grade.  How  this  result  may  be  brought  about 
is  a  question  of  educational  administration  which  should 
occasion  no  great  difficulty  in  a  well-organized  system  of 
schools.  Such  an  extension  of  the  Latin  course  would 
make  it  possible  to  accomplish  results  more  nearly  com- 
parable with  those  obtained  in  the  secondary  schools  of 
European  countries,  and  so  would  effect  a  saving  of  time 
at  the  upper  end  of  the  course.  Greek  should  be  com- 
menced at  least  as  early  as  the  second  year  of  the  high 
school;  but  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  this  study  can  make 
much  progress,  at  least  in  the  West,  until  the  school 
authorities  are  more  disposed  to  allow  small  classes  to 
be  formed  in  the  subject  and  teachers  of  Latin  manifest 
a  warmer  interest  in  the  promotion  of  Greek  studies. 
The  immediate  future  of  Greek  is  largely  in  the  hands 
of  teachers  of  Latin,  who  should  spare  no  effort  to  arouse 
interest  in  Greek  and  form  classes  in  the  subject. 

The  second  remedy  lies  in  such  a  readjustment  of  the 
curriculum  in  colleges  having  a  loose  elective  system  as 
shall  bring  a  much  larger  number  of  students  into  contact 
with  classical  studies  in  the  earlier  part  of  their  course. 


58  Latin  and  Greek 

In  the  third  place,  the  utilization  of  the  classics  in 
preparation  for  professional  study  should  be  made  sure 
by  according  to  them  a  fuller  recognition  in  the  require- 
ments for  admission  to  professional  schools  and  by 
making  them  a  fixed  requirement  in  combined  literary 
and  professional  courses. 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  our  educational  system  is 
justified  by  its  product,  and  that  the  number  of  success- 
ful men  among  us  is  sufficient  evidence  of  its  efficiency. 
Such  a  generalization  makes  no  account  of  the  fact  that 
there  are  many  other  elements  which  enter  into  the 
problem  besides  the  training  of  the  schools.  Owing  to 
the  opportunities  afforded  by  the  conditions  peculiar 
to  a  new  and  rich  country,  many  men  have  risen  to 
prominence  and  affluence  practically  without  educational 
advantages,  but  that  does  not  disprove  the  value  of 
education;  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  possible  for  a  man  to 
become  successful  not  on  account  of  his  education  but  in 
spite  of  it.  The  problem  is  to  bring  each  life  into  vital 
contact  with  the  knowledge,  and  subject  it  to  the  train- 
ing, that  will  best  fit  it  for  living  happily  and  well,  render- 
ing its  due  service  to  society ;  in  the  light  of  both  theo- 
retical considerations  and  experiences,  we  may  safely  assert 
for  Latin  and  Greek  a  much  more  important  place  in  the 
educational  process  than  they  have  in  our  country  at 
the  present  time. 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  NATURE  OF  CULTURE  STUDIES 

R.  M.  WENLEY 
University  of  Michigan 

For  the  purposes  of  The  Schoolmasters'  Club,  the 
phrase  "culture  studies"  may  be  taken,  fairly  enough, 
in  the  restricted  sense  of  Greek  and  Latin.  The  classical 
languages  happen  to  lie  within  the  field  of  practical 
politics;  moreover,  they  offer  debatable  territory,  not 
as  yet  delimitated.  While,  therefore,  I  should  prefer  to 
deal  with  the  larger  aspects  of  the  subject,  as  being  most 
germane  to  my  own  daily  work,  I  propose,  in  the  present 
connection,  to  attempt  this,  the  chosen  battle  ground  of 
teachers,  although  disclaiming  all  responsibility  for  the 
choice.     I  find  it  waiting,  ready-made,  so  to  speak. 

At  the  outset,  I  am  going  to  render  a  confession,  justi- 
fied by  the  nature  of  the  circumstances.  As  matters  now 
stand  in  the  realm  of  investigation  which  I  have  the  honor 
to  represent,  I  cannot  appear  either  as  a  special  pleader 
for  culture  studies  or  as  their  advocatus  diaboli.  For 
philosophy  is  interwoven  inextricably  with  the  positive 
sciences  on  one  side,  with  culture  studies  on  another.  I 
fail  to  see,  for  instance,  how  a  philosopher  can  succeed 
in  metaphysics  today  apart  from  close  touch  with  physical 
and  biological  science;  but,  equally,  I  fail  to  see  how  he 
can  succeed  in  ethics,  aesthetics,  or  philosophy  of  rehgion 
if  he  have  little  Latin  and  less  Greek,  or  if  he  be  blind  to 
the  harvest  reaped  by  archaeology  and  historical  criticism, 
by  anthropology  and  sociology.  The  psychologist  who 
is  guiltless  of  physiology  cannot  realize  the  significance 

59 


60  Latin  and  Greek 

of  his  subject,  while  the  moralist  who  lacks  first-hand 
grip  upon  Plato,  Aristotle,  and  the  influence  of  the  Stoics 
upon  Roman  law,  to  mention  naught  else,  must  miss 
many  factors  essential  to  his  Wissenschaft.  Accordingly, 
I  come  before  you  rather  to  proffer  some  suggestions  than 
to  fornuilate  a  brief.  I  shall  try  to  show  what  must  be 
said  for  culture  studies  (in  the  narrower  sense  of  the 
classics),  just  as,  in  a  different  connection,  before  a  differ- 
ent audience,  I  might  attempt  to  accomplish  the  same 
task  for  other  incidentals  of  a  curriculum. 

Beyond  dispute,  much  difficulty  and  no  little  miscon- 
ception have  been  caused  by  the  accomplished  facts 
incident  to  our  intellectual  movements  during  the  last 
two  generations.  Culture  studies  were  passing  through 
a  period  of  transition  which,  in  one  way,  might  be  termed 
a  time  of  trial.  As  means  of  education,  they  used  to 
enjoy  a  monopoly;  the  claims  of  other  disciplines  have 
met,  are  meeting  still,  with  wide  recognition.  And,  as 
a  contemporaneous,  nay,  disturbing  event,  culture  studies 
themselves  have  undergone  profound  transformation. 
Now,  an  age  of  transition,  no  matter  when,  breeds  uncer- 
tainty, and  confronts  us  with  some,  perhaps  many, 
antagonistic  or  mutually  exclusive  opinions,  and  not  one 
of  them — such  is  the  temper  of  these  epochs — gains 
mastery,  because  an  accepted  standard  never  appears. 
"We  do  not  now  set  out  to  solve  the  world  at  a  stroke,  as 
men  did  in  the  days  when  thought  was  young."  The 
focus  necessary  to  decisive  judgment  belongs  to  the  future. 
Consequently,  too  many  "make  a  stab  at  it,"  and  miss 
the  point  sadly.  Or,  to  be  quite  plain,  the  multiplication 
of  nonsense,  of  the  nonsense  always  incident  to  immature 
reflection,  has  bemused  not  a  few.  A  tincture  of  half- 
truth,  dyed  in  the  wool,  conceals  all  too  successfully  the 


Culture  Studies  61 

character  of  the  objects  under  discussion.  For  example, 
greatly  daring,  many  a  one  who  has  never  peeped  into  a 
psychological  laboratory  proceeds  to  pose  as  a  psy- 
chologist, and  undeterred  by  ignorance,  solves  problems 
for  the  people  psychologically,  as  he  fondly  imagines 
This  would  be  amusing,  were  it  not  so  pitiable;  food  for 
laughter,  were  it  not  so  insidious.  You  and  I,  as  we  all 
realize  acutely,  have  been  jogged  to  weariness  with  pleas 
for  the  classics,  with  objurgations  on  the  deep  damnation 
of  their  taking  off;  or  surfeited  with  paeans  to  the  utilities, 
bewitched  by  the  serried  facts  which  science  alone  can 
originate,  as  the  allegation  runs.  We  possess  a  positive 
right  to  bewilderment,  because  both  contentions  happen 
to  be  equally  true  and — equally  false.  Where  fallacy 
rules,  what  shall  we  say  ? 

First,  then,  as  to  the  fallacy.  What  is  it?  Differ- 
ent ranges  of  human  experience  demand — nay,  dictate — 
widely  divergent  treatment;  the  categories,  or  funda- 
mental forms  of  judgment,  applicable  in  one  sphere 
become  merely  absurd,  sometimes  positively  erroneous 
or  misleading  in  another.  Men  used  to  argue  about  the 
mind  as  if  it  were  an  object  in  the  external  world,  and 
therefore  matter  fit  for  exposition  by  mechanical  concepts. 
We  were  accustomed  to  be  told  that  mind  and  the  contents 
of  mind  are  two  separate  things.  This  jejune  idea  arose 
when  the  universe  was  considered  in  all  its  aspects  as  if 
it  were  built  from  self-contained  parts  related  throughout 
by  action  and  reaction.  It  may  be  possible  to  say  in 
words  that  knowledge  flows  into  the  mind  through  the 
senses  as  light  floods  a  room  through  the  windows,  but 
human  thought  is  so  organized  as  to  be  unable  to  endow 
the  statement  with  any  meaning  whatsoever.  Such 
notions,  admirable  in  the  sphere  of  mechanics,  do  not 


62  Latin  and  Greek 

operate  in  the  realm  of  psychology.  Their  use  by  the 
amateur  is  a  standing  jest,  and  a  poor  one  at  that.  It 
embodies  the  worst  kind  of  picture  thinking,  and  picture 
thinking  has  ever  proved  the  most  unreliable,  even  dan- 
gerous, habit.  If  we  may  apply  analogies  to  matters 
mental,  we  must  draw  upon  the  organic  kingdom.  Yet, 
even  here,  the  procedure  is  risky.  When  we  receive 
mental  nourishment  from  Goethe  or  Spencer,  the  familiar 
accompaniments  of  the  tavern  hardly  hold.  Employ 
them,  if  you  will,  but  at  your  peril. 

So  far  as  my  observation  has  gone,  a  very  similar 
fallacy  dominates  many  opinions  elicited  these  last  few 
years  in  criticism  of  culture  studies  from  the  standpoint 
of  science  and  of  the  utilities;  likewise  the  uncompli- 
mentary references  to  practical  aims  in  education  from 
the  side  of  the  humanities.  Let  us  attempt  to  grasp  the 
point.  It  may  not  loom  large  on  the  surface;  yet,  for 
this  very  reason,  it  may  prove  of  the  last  importance 
after  due  inspection. 

Man's  life  is  so  complicated  that  the  same  objects, 
even  when  viewed  in  the  same  perspective,  may  reveal 
very  variable  values.  To  take  a  case.  If  I  be  informed 
properly,  the  American  school  child  is  taught  something 
like  this:  The  Puritans  were  heroic  folk,  who  quit  their 
native  land  sorrowfully,  who  underwent  dire  peril  by 
sea  and  on  inhospitable  shores,  in  order  that  they  might 
pray  to  God  as  their  convictions  prompted.  And  these 
facts,  tricked  out  this  way  and  that,  have  at  length  come 
to  serve  the  youthful  mind  as  a  sublime,  inspiriting  moral 
legend.  But  what  of  these  same  Puritans  who  refused 
others  this  fundamental  right  as  they  conceived  it,  who 
burned  witches,  and  engaged  in  not  a  few  abominable 
persecutions  ?     Here  the  schoolbook  ceases  to  be  explicit. 


Culture  Studies  63 

Now,  if  we  find  these  lambent  contrasts  within  the  same 
realm  and  in  connection  with  the  same  things,  what  may 
we  not  anticipate  when  we  compare  widely  different 
tracts  of  human  experience,  filled  with  incommen- 
surable material?  As  everyone  knows,  or  ought  to 
know,  we  do  light  upon  contrasted  universes  which  seem 
to  circle  on  planes  that  never  intersect;  contrasted  sub- 
jects, contrasted  methods,  above  all,  contrasted  stand- 
ards, confront  us.  Something  of  this  sort,  without 
doubt,  conditions  the  "culture  versus  utility"  problem. 

Notice  first,  then,  that  culture  studies  link  man  princi- 
pally with  the  past;  their  roots  strike  deep  into  history. 
Rome  attached  the  glorious  heritage  of  centuries;  Carthage, 
Syracuse,  Athens,  Thebes,  Sparta,  Alexandria,  Jeru- 
salem, were  swallowed  successively.  Then  she  proceeded 
to  annex  the  hopes  of  the  future — Gaul,  Spain,  Germany, 
Britain.  On  these  she  stamped  her  language,  her  laws, 
her  institutions,  for  a  millennium;  thus  we,  their  latest 
heirs,  live  bosomed  in  her  still.  Try  as  we  may,  we  cannot 
rid  ourselves  of  the  long,  triumphant  list  of  emperors, 
popes,  kings,  jurists,  philosophers,  theologians,  ecclesi- 
astics, and  saints  who  led  mankind  always  within  the 
framework  of  her  civilization.  Nay,  in  proportion  as 
we  attempt  to  shake  her  off,  to  free  us  from  all  knowledge 
of  the  tongue  that  preserves  her  unmatched  achievement, 
we  dedicate  ourselves  once  more  to  a  new  barbarism, 
different  in  degree,  mayhap,  from  that  of  our  blue-clayed 
ancestors,  but  nowise  different  in  kind.  Put  away  Latin, 
if  you  must,  but  count  the  cost  with  care.  For  Latinity 
happens  to  enshrine  all  too  much  of  our  spiritual  being, 
of  our  character  as  it  actually  is,  to  be  forsaken  for  any 
new-fangled,    untried,    popular — and  populous — freak. 

The  case  of  Greek  is  quite  similar.     The  tongue  of 


64  Latin  and  Greek 

Plato,  in  wlioso  thoughts  and  very  terms  our  Christianity 
came  to  consciousness  of  itself;  of  Aristotle,  who  com- 
posed the  only  first-rate  work  on  politics  ever  written — 
a  wonderful  instance  of  prevision  of  some  modern  preju- 
dices; of  Mark,  the  laconic  reporter  of  the  ideal  life  that 
typifies  our  holiest  aspirations;  of  Paul,  who  freed  religion 
from  the  bonds  of  race  for  our  benefit;  of  Marcus  Aure- 
lius,  from  whom  was  wrung  the  most  poignant  document 
that  ever  came  from  human  pen;  and  of  a  cloud  of  wit- 
nesses, who  died,  not  having  received  the  promises,  that 
the}'  without  us  should  not  be  made  perfect;  the  language 
which  every  scientific  man  employs  today  to  conserve 
his  cherished  results  and  aid  in  further  inquiry — this, 
I  say,  we  cannot  cast  aside,  any  more  than  we  can  bid 
flesh  and  blood  begone.  The  hand  of  the  past  lies  upon 
us,  not  a  dead  hand,  but  the  touch  of  a  living  present. 
And,  just  in  this  connection,  one  may  lay  finger  upon  the 
precise  value  of  culture  studies.  Why  is  it  that,  despite 
his  paltry  character,  his  low  aims,  the  frequent  unkind- 
liness  of  his  judgments,  the  obvious  contradiction  of  his 
profession  by  his  practice,  we  yet  make  shift  to  praise 
such  a  one  in  the  near  presence  of  his  corpse?  Why, 
in  a  word,  do  we  so  often  mix  incongruous  "taffy"  into 
epitaphy,  and  contrive  to  preserve  our  solemnity? 
Merely  prevarication  is  it  ?  Merely  a  salve  to  some 
stricken  relative  ?  By  no  means !  Why,  then  ?  Because, 
in  presence  of  the  tremendous  fact  of  death,  the  one  event 
in  our  experience  void  of  even  the  shadow  of  extenuation, 
small  things  slink  away,  and  we  catch  momentary 
glimpses  of  the  eternal,  of  the  eternal  common  to  our- 
selves with  that  poor,  broken  body  laid  there  meaning- 
less, at  the  close  of  an  existence  almost  as  meaningless. 
So,  also,  the  past  of  the  race  affects  us,  even  if  we  fail  to 


Culture  Studies  65 

recognize  the  parallel.  What  can  we  recover  of  that 
''million-footed  city"  in  the  first  century  of  grace?  In 
one  way,  all  too  little;  in  another,  nothing  more  than  we 
need.  I  cannot  fill  out  the  back-stairs  gossip  of  Sue- 
tonius; I  am  quite  unable  to  construct  even  a  fragmentary 
diary  of  the  men  and  things  familiar  in  Seneca's  daily 
walk  and  conversation;  I  smile  at  the  bare  idea  of  setting 
Trimalchio's  table  correct  to  the  last  mode  in  platters  for 
turbot;  I  can  scarcely  even  conceive  the  hourly  tittle- 
tattle  of  the  maids  in  Messalina's  chamber;  I  fail  com- 
pletely to  resurrect  the  common  talk  of  Quintilian  and 
his  colleagues  on  the  professoriate;  nay,  the  latest  philoso- 
pher warns  me  not  to  try,  because,  as  he  says,  much 
evidence  supporting  from  many  times  and  quarters, 
"professors  are  fragmental  humanities."  Nevertheless, 
when  I  bethink  me  of  all  that  Greek  and  Latin  reveal 
and  preserve  as  essential  in  that  age,  I  am  forced  to  con- 
clude, by  evidence  literally  overwhelming,  that,  from  the 
viewpoint  of  an  occidental  at  the  dawn  even  of  a  vaunted 
twentieth  century,  it  was  the  most  significant  moment 
in  the  career  of  our  humanity.  Tacitus  and  Juvenal 
and  Seneca,  Plutarch  and  Pliny  and  Epictetus,  Luke  and 
Mark  and  Paul,  Philo,  the  unknown  authors  of  the  apocry- 
phal literature  of  the  day,  of  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews, 
and  of  the  gospel  named  for  John,  unite  in  compelling 
me  to  exclaim:    Ah! 

but  if  I  could  understand 
What  you  are,  root  and  all,  and  all  in  all, 
I  should  know  what  God  and  man  is. 

The  destruction  of  the  Alexandrian  Library — a  major 
calamity  of  recorded  history — has  forever  ended  many 
an  effort  to  unravel  the  dominant,  transitive  conceptions 
of  that  seething  age.     But,  on  the  other  hand,  enough 


66  Latin  and  Greek 

remains  to  indicate  wherein  its  throbbing  vitality  partook 
of  universal  significance.  Yes,  when  we  gaze  out  upon 
the  past,  the  petty  sloughs  away,  we  are  left  alone  with 
the  spacious  things  that  endowed  life  with  dignity  and 
gifted  it  with  permanent  worth.  In  this  wonderful  dis- 
appearance of  the  temporary  the  central  meaning  of 
culture  studies,  like  their  present  efficacy,  find  impreg- 
nable shelter.  The  aim  of  these  pursuits  needs  no  further 
elucidation  than  this:  they  demand  of  us  that  we  he 
something,  that  we  be  something  worth  while.  Struggle 
as  we  may,  the  past  has  become  internal  to  us;  irreducible 
circumstances  have  wrought  it  into  our  being  as  an 
organic  part.  Through  this  influence,  far  more  than 
through  any  other,  deep  calls  unto  deep  in  our  spirits. 
And,  when  the  practical  side  comes  in  question,  any 
reflective  person  can  descry  forthwith  the  secret  of  the 
spell  cast  by  culture  studies.  They  require,  in  their  use 
as  educational  machinery,  that  certain  human  processes, 
not  so  indispensable  in  other  disciplines,  should  be 
employed,  and  kept  in  constant  operation. 

Now,  the  veriest  jackanapes  among  educationists — 
and  it  is  well,  possibly,  to  remember  that  we  number  in 
our  midst  many  jackanapes  by  nature's  choice — cannot 
deny  my  facts.  But  he  may  snap  out  the  question: 
"Well,  what  about  actual  practice?"  Let  us  look  at 
this  for  a  moment. 

In  the  first  place,  I  would  hint  to  my  friend,  and 
brother,  the  jackanapes,  allowing  him  to  extract  such 
personal  reference  as  he  might  see  fit:  "Of  course,  I  am 
perfectly  aware  that  many  men  can  never  he  anything  in 
particular.  But  the  culture  studies  are  scarcely  charge- 
able with  this  soft  impeachment."  Leaving  him  to  chew 
the  cud  on  this  cryptic  remark,  we  may  proceed. 


Culture  Studies  67 

The  work  of  practical  education  suffers  sore  havoc 
from  a  misconception  which,  however  pardonable  in  the 
minds  of  parents  and  other  dilettanti,  ought  to  effect  no 
lodgement  among  professional  teachers.  But,  as  often 
happens,  they  fall  victims  too.  The  temper  of  our 
society,  engendered  by  the  pressure  upon  it  exerted  by 
an  unkempt,  unexploited  continent,  and  by  our  conven- 
tional standards  of  success,  consequents  of  the  same  cause, 
must  bear  responsibility  for  the  spread  of  infection  to 
educational  circles.  Parents  aside,  too  many  of  us  are 
tricked  into  the  supposition  that  our  pupils  are  placed 
with  us,  first  and  foremost,  because  fated  to  earn  a  com- 
petence. Accordingly,  we  are  prone  to  think  that  certain 
subjects,  of  direct  bearing  upon  practical  life,  should 
secure  preference  in  the  curriculum.  If  my  evidence  be 
not  superficial,  this  extraordinary  error  constitutes  a 
main  source  of  the  inextricable  confusion  shot  through 
our  present  educational  arrangements.  All  are  shouting: 
''Who  will  show  us  any  good?"  Equally,  all  are  for- 
getting that  the  term  ''good"  may  be  interpreted  very 
variously.  And,  by  a  process  of  unconscious  selection, 
imposed  by  contemporary  social  tendencies,  one  alter- 
native interpretation  is  taken,  the  others  left.  Con- 
fession being  good  for  the  soul,  we  may  as  well  make  a 
clean  breast  of  it,  and  acknowledge  that  by  "good"  we 
mean  "marketable."  Can  any  other  meaning  be  put 
upon  the  constant  inquiry:  "What's  the  good  of  culture 
studies  anyway  ?"  To  reveal  the  misconception  involved 
requires  no  subtle  analysis.  The  point  is  simply  this: 
Education  does  not  consist  in  what  is  acquired,  whether 
this  be  a  commodity  of  ready  sale  or  not,  but  in  the 
manner  of  acquisition  and  all  that  it  implies. 

While  our  ideas  about  education  may  be — in  some 


68  Latin  and  Greek 

respects  are — sadly  awry,  they  at  least  imply  a  general 
consensus  of  opinion  to  the  effect  that  education  can  be 
defined  properly  as  a  process  of  discipline  designed  to 
put  human  beings  in  control  of  their  mental  powers. 
When  one  has  the  capacity  to  mobilize  his  faculties  and 
concentrate  them  upon  a  single  point,  then  he  may  be 
said  to  have  education.  Now,  mind  mobilizes.  And 
the  sole  way  in  which  a  youth  can  acquire  this  mental 
elasticity  and  co-ordination  comes  from  discipline  as  an 
integral  element  in  instruction.  Here  we  obtain  a  prin- 
ciple of  broad  range.  It  appears  to  include  the  expert 
in  any  work.  The  telegraph  operator,  the  chicken  farmer, 
the  broker,  the  detective,  the  boss,  the  banker,  must  all 
possess  power  of  mental  mobilization,  or  go  under.  But 
the  idea  I  am  urging  is  that  discipline  as  derived  from 
culture  studies  enables  men  to  realize  the  distinctively 
human  endowments  latent  in  them.  Eliminate  these 
means  of  education,  and  what  kind  of  person  are  we  apt 
to  produce  ?     The  poet  makes  reply : 

A  primrose  by  a  river's  brim 
A  yellow  primrose  was  to  him, 
And  nothing  more. 

On  the  other  hand,  subjected  to  their  benign  influence, 
there  appears  one  in  whose  mouth  the  words  of  the  same 
poet  prophesy  from  a  spirit  already  apprehended  of  great 
ideas : 

Great  God!    I'd  rather  be 
A  pagan  suckled  in  a  creed  outworn; 

So  might  I,  standing  on  this  pleasant  lea, 

Have  glimpses  that  would  make  me  less  forlorn; 

Have  sight  of  Proteus  rising  from  the  sea. 
Or  hear  old  Triton  blow  his  wreathed  horn. 


Culture  Studies  69 

If,  for  example,  as  some  suppose,  the  spread  of  popular 
education  have  affected  criminal  statistics,  we  must  not 
infer  that  learning  deters  from  lawlessness;  the  truth  is 
that  the  subjection  precedent  to  learning  bears  fruit. 
Now,  in  this  connection  man  possesses  an  incomparable 
advantage  in  the  appeal  he  can  take  to  history.  If  we 
can  induce  him  to  soak  himself,  as  it  were,  in  that  deposit 
of  the  larger  life  which  history  always  leaves,  we  shall 
have  brought  him  within  the  sphere  of  a  profoundly 
transforming  power.  More  than  any  others,  the  culture 
studies  lend  themselves  to  this  process.  They  tend  to 
make  a  man  over,  to  liberate  him;  and  this  is  precisely 
what  a  human  being  needs,  if  he  is  to  realize  the  oppor- 
tunities incident  characteristically  to  his  nature.  Or, 
taking  the  practical  aspect  of  the  same  fact,  he  cannot 
be  expected  to  direct  others — direction  being  what  we  are 
all  asking  of  the  educated — till  thorough  discipline  has 
taught  him  the  things  that  demand  direction  in  himself. 
From  this,  one  plain  inference  follows.  The  studies  in 
which  average  attainment  can  be  least  readily  elicited  by 
purely  mechanical  means  offer  the  processes  best  calcu- 
lated to  bring  educational  results.  Upon  them,  that  is, 
we  can  safely  base  professional  and  technical  instruction. 
In  this  connection  I  cannot  forbear  to  quote  an  eminent 
authority  on  modern-language  teaching,  whose  conclu- 
sions coincide  closely  with  my  own: 

The  possibilities  of  literature  and  mathematics  are  bound- 
less; nobody  has  yet  exhausted  them,  nobody  ever  will;  whereas 
the  possibilities,  say,  of  geometrical  drawing  are  strictly  limited, 
and  the  process  of  teaching  such  a  subject  is  strictly  mechani- 
cal. Ultimately  this  is  at  the  bottom  of  the  feeling  of  distrust 
which  classical  scholars  feel  for  chemistry  and  the  other  natural 
sciences  as  instruments  of  education.  You  may  accumulate 
facts  in  these  sciences  to  any  extent,  you  may  develop  super- 


70  Latin  and  Greek 

lative  skill  in  devising  and  naanipulating  experiments,  but  there 
is  no  progressive  intellectual  development  required  in  dealing 
with  them;  there  is  an  infinite  repetition  of  the  same  intellectual 
process.  In  fact,  you  cannot  become  a  sound  chemist  without 
having  had  previously  a  sound  mathematical  training  up  to  a 
certain  point;  and  if  you  are  to  be  able  to  turn  your  knowledge 
of  chemistry  to  account  by  imparting  it  to  others,  you  must 
have  had  a  sound  linguistic  training  as  well. 

Similarly,  I  think  that,  without  much  difficulty,  I  could 
make  out  a  case  for  the  pure  sciences  as  instruments  of 
training  over  against  much  of  the  stuff  touted  now,  because 
it  is  supposed  to  be  easily  marketable. 

I  am  well  aware,  of  course,  that  those  in  charge  of  the 
culture  studies  do  not  realize  their  opportunities  always. 
I  am  often  struck  by  the  amazing  lack  of  appreciation 
evidenced  by  teachers  of  language  with  regard  to  the 
transitive  import  of  their  subjects.  They  seem  to  forget 
that  a  language  may  not  be  learned  by  rote,  and  for  its 
mere  anatomy;  that  it  is  the  casket  containing  a  mighty 
treasure;  that  the  spirit  of  its  creators  and  creatures  con- 
stitutes the  real  object  of  educational  pursuit.  No 
doubt,  they  become  myopic,  because  bemused  by  super- 
stitions about  technical  training.  Here  we  have  the 
jwvLo^ofjL^v^,  one  busy  with  monosyllables,  as  Herodotus 
admirably  put  it.  If,  as  used  to  be  thought,  Greek  and 
Latin  be  but  technical  tools  necessary  to  the  so-called 
learned  professions — to  the  law,  the  church,  the  services, 
and  to  teaching — then  they  are  in  little  better  case  than 
domestic  "science"  as  a  propaedeutic  to  matrimony; 
than  mathematics,  physics,  and  chemistry  laid  on  with 
a  trowel  to  support  engineering  top-hamper.  Accuracy 
of  mental  operation  does  not  come  with  memorizing  lin- 
guistic forms  and  rules.  Here  our  culture  study  friends 
frequently    fool    themselves.     Nevertheless,    ability    to 


Culture  Studies  71 

write  decent  Latin  prose,  with  dictionary  at  elbow,  simply 
cannot  be  acquired  without  at  the  same  time  inducing 
the  kind  of  mental  organization  which  at  length  enables 
a  man  to  go  anywhere  and  do  anything,  as  a  great  general 
phrased  it.  My  brilliant  colleague,  Mr.  Shorey,  of 
Chicago,  lays  his  finger  on  the  point  when  he  says: 

I  am  cynically  skeptical  about  students  who  cannot  under- 
stand elementary  Latin  syntax,  but  distinguish  themselves  in 
mathematics,  exact  science,  or  political  economy.  The  student 
who  is  really  baflfled  by  the  elementary  logical  analysis  of  lan- 
guage may  be  a  keen  observer,  a  deft  mathematician,  an  artistic 
genius — he  will  never  be  an  analytic  thinker. 

And  I  draw  the  proof  from  my  own  experience.  The 
most  effective  masters  of  the  ''positive"  sciences  known 
to  me  personally  are  invariably  the  men  who  have  first 
acquired  the  mental  organization  which  the  culture  studies 
confer;  of  this  fact  they  are  quite  aware  themselves.  A 
creed  was  impressed  upon  them  in  these  early  years;  not 
simply  work,  and  still  work,  but  work  in  a  certain  fashion. 
They  gained  connective  processes;  thereafter  the  rest  is, 
not  only  easier,  but  immensely  more  efficient. 

Further,  the  culture  studies  demand  a  certain  per- 
sonal detachment  that  makes  for  individuality — the  one 
criminal  omission  of  our  contemporary  system.  They 
compel  a  man  to  cut  loose  from  things  immediately 
present  to  sense,  from  the  supports  so  consoling  to  the 
second-rater;  to  prepare  for  larger  relations,  to  view 
detail  as  means  to  a  distant  end;  to  acquire  mastery  for 
its  own  all-sufficing  sake.  The  really  educated  man 
ought,  after  his  fashion,  to  be  a  creator  in  some  sort; 
that  is,  he  will  manifest  a  special  or  distinctive  way  of 
getting  at  things,  thus  rendering  himself  a  personality 
with  whom  one  must  reckon.     But  to  this  end  he  needs 


72  Latin  and  Greek 

education,  not  simply  instruction.  Doubtless,  he  may 
acquire  education  along  many  routes;  but  if  you  insist 
upon  educational  system,  the  great  unlying  witness, 
experience,  testifies  that  the  psychological  organization 
which  as  a  rule  induces  the  accuracy  of  mental  habit 
necessarj^  to  personal  equation  and  self-mastery  comes 
most  effectively  by  way  of  the  culture  studies.  Indeed, 
nature  has  so  legislated.  For  language,  disguise  the 
case  as  we  will,  happens  to  be  the  instrument  of  thought, 
and  therefore  the  conservator  of  all  our  heritage  from  the 
"spiritually  indispensable"  of  past  ages.  Possibly  it 
may  interest  you  if  I  proceed  to  illustrate  the  point  in 
concrete  by  some  references,  supplied  by  one  of  my  own 
teachers.^  They  may  prove  the  more  interesting  in  that 
they  refer  to  the  much-debated  subject  of  Latin.  Pray 
remember  that  we  are  discussing  accuracy  of  mental 
process,  as  the  educational  foundation  for  achievement 
in  any  walk  of  life. 

Here  is  a  very  simple  Latin  sentence:  "vellem  mor- 
tuos."  Thanks  to  the  difference  of  opinion  just  hinted, 
I  cannot  assume  that  all  of  you  are  able  to  translate  it — 
more's  the  pity!  It  means:  "I  would  that  they  were 
dead."  To  understand  this  sentence  thoroughly  demands 
no  less  than  fourteen  different  intellectual  operations,  as 
follows.  (An  English  sentence  of  seventy-three  words 
requires  some  twenty-seven  intellectual  processes  of  a 
Gaul.)  "A  student  must  know  (1)  the  person,  (2)  tense, 
(3)  voice,  (4)  number,  (5)  mood  of  the  verb  vellem; 
(6)  that  it  comes  from  volo,  meaning  (7)  'I  wish';  and 
that  (8)  the  subjunctive  has  here  a  particular  shade  of 
meaning.  As  to  mortuos,  he  must  know  that  it  is  (9)  the 
accusative,  (10)  plural,  (11)  masculine,  from  (12)  mortuus, 

1  Professor  George  G.  Ramsay  of  Glasgow. 


Culture  Studies  73 

meaning  (13)  'dead';  (14)  the  reason  why  the  accusa- 
tive is  necessary."  A  student  who  slips  up  on  any  one 
of  these  is  bound  to  make  a  lovely  mess  when  he  comes 
to  translate.  Look  at  the  messes  possible.  Here  is  a 
line  from  Ovid,  in  which  the  poet  describes  one  effect  of 
a  severe  frost:  ''Saepe  sonant  moti  glacie  pendente 
capilli."  The  translation  is:  "Often,  if  you  shake  your 
hair,  the  icicles  which  hang  to  it  will  rustle."  On  the 
other  hand,  here  is  a  translation  given  by  one  of  my 
fellow-students :  "  The  goats  frequently  get  on  to  a  glacier, 
and  when  it  starts  to  slip  away  they  send  forth  their 
voices."  Obviously,  as  your  smiles  tell,  this  seems  an 
instance  of  terrible  stupidity.  But  it  is  nothing  of  the 
kind.  It  happens  to  be,  at  bottom,  a  case  of  inaccuracy. 
The  poor  fellow  has  mistaken  an  i  for  an  e  in  capilli, 
which  he  supposes  is  the  plural  of  capella,  the  diminutive 
of  caper,  "a  goat."  Having  blundered  here,  he  becomes 
the  "goat"  who  goes  down  with  the  avalanche,  and  sends 
forth  a  very  amusing  voice.  One  little  slip  and,  such 
is  the  close-hammered  Latin  structure,  wholesale  error 
results.  Another  case  illustrates  admirably  the  main 
difference  between  Latin  and  our  own  tongue.  Inflec- 
tions and  constructions  accordant,  as  you  know,  con- 
stitute the  main  contrast.  Hence,  in  English  it  is  possible 
to  reach  the  meaning  fairly  well  by  a  simple  knowledge 
of  each  word  separately;  not  so  in  Latin,  where  the  con- 
nections must  be  observed  most  accurately.  In  the 
Annals,  Tacitus  lays  down  one  of  those  aphorisms  for 
which  he  is  famous.  "Bella  plane,"  he  says,  "accinctis 
obeunda."  Rendered  into  the  vulgar  tongue,  for  the 
benefit  of  the  ladies,  this  means:  "When  a  man  goes 
out  to  battle,  he  should  leave  his  wife  behind  him." 
With  even  more  consideration  for  the  ladies,  an  English 


74  Latin  and  Greek 

man  of  letters,  now  a  person  of  distinction,  thus  trans- 
lated the  passage  when  he  was  a  student  at  Glasgow:  "A 
beautiful  woman  must  obviously  be  well  dressed."  The 
interesting  thing  is  that  the  ingenuous  translator  did 
know  something  about  every  one  of  the  four  words  in  the 
original.  He  knew  that,  in  some  contexts,  bella  may 
mean  "a  beautiful  woman";  he  was  aware  that  plane 
means  "obviously";  he  recognized  that  oheunda  indicates 
necessity;  and  he  noticed  that  accinctis  has  something 
to  do  with  millinery.  But  he  utterly  missed  the  con- 
struction, and  produced  a  most  proper  rule,  though 
hardly  the  one  that  Tacitus  had  in  mind.  Lack  of 
accuracy,  not  lack  of  knowledge,  wrought  his  downfall. 
The  last  ^nth  which  I  shall  trouble  you  brings  home  still 
more  forcibly  the  contrast  between  English  and  Latin: 
"In  Latin  you  must  be  absolutely  right,  or  you  are  not 
right  at  all."  Alluding  to  the  murder  of  Claudius  by  his 
wife  Agrippina,  who  gave  him  a  dish  of  poisoned  mush- 
rooms, and  in  the  course  of  a  description  of  a  fashionable 
dinner  at  Rome,  Juvenal  writes: 

Vilibus  ancipites  fungi  ponentur  amicis. 
Boletus  domino;  sed  quales  Claudius  edit 
Ante  ilium  uxoris,  post  quem  nil  amplius  edit. 

What  Juvenal  would  have  said,  had  he  been  writing 
English  prose,  is  about  as  follows:  "Before  the  poor 
dependents  will  be  placed  toadstools  of  dubious  quality; 
before  mine  host,  a  lordly  mushroom,  of  the  sort  the 
emperor  Claudius  ate,  ere  that  one  administered  to  him 
by  his  wife,  after  which  he  ate  nothing  more."  The 
passage  has  been  translated  thus — and  I  know  no  more 
delicious  example  of  the  demand  that  Latin  makes  upon 
the  student:   "Let  those  who  are  in  doubt  be  permitted 


Culture  Studies  75 

to  discharge  their  worthless  friends;  let  Boletus  do  the 
same  to  his  master;  but  then  that  was  before  Claudius 
ate  his  wife,  after  which  he  ate  nothing  more  at  all." 
Observe  that  the  translation  not  only  makes  perfect 
sense,  but  that  the  last  clauses  rise  to  the  level  even  of 
wisdom.  Notice,  too — and  here  is  the  essential  point — 
the  translator  knew  the  meaning  of  each  word  separately, 
with  the  exception  of  Boletus,  which,  standing  at  the 
beginning  of  a  line,  and  being  therefore  capitalized,  he 
took  for  a  proper  name.  The  passage  contains  nineteen 
words,  of  which  the  student  actually  knows  eighteen, 
and  yet  he  fails  completely  to  catch  the  sense  except  of 
the  final  five  words.  Nevertheless,  he  has  blundered 
egregiously  wherever  he  could  make  a  blunder,  save  in 
the  last  clause.  The  situation  is  not  conceivable  in 
English,  because  it  makes  no  such  demand  upon  accuracy 
of  intellectual  process.  And  in  this  demand  the  efficiency 
of  Latin,  not  for  instruction,  but  as  an  instrument  of 
education,  resides.  In  a  word  we  have,  first,  the  disci- 
pline necessary  to  thought,  and  then,  as  a  result  of  the 
material  set  forth,  an  introduction  to  the  great  things  of 
life,  leached  of  all  pettiness  by  the  lapse  of  time.  Such, 
in  my  judgment,  are  the  main  factors  incident  to  the 
nature  of  culture  studies. 

It  has  been  my  endeavor  to  keep  sight  of  the  practical 
side  in  a  discussion  which,  from  my  personal  standpoint, 
is  fraught  rather  with  immense  theoretical  interest.  So, 
permit  me  to  conclude  by  referring  to  a  few  points  even 
more  practical  than  anything  we  have  considered. 

There  can  be  little  doubt,  in  my  judgment,  that  certain 
conditions  inseparable  from  successful  pursuit  of  culture 
studies  combine  to  militate  against  them  for  many 
routine  purposes.     In  the  first  place,  they  make  unusual 


76  Latin  and  Greek 

demands  upon  the  teacher.  He  who  would  carry  their 
banner  aloft,  and  keep  it  flying  conspicuous,  needs  a 
certain  bigness,  weight — personality,  if  you  will.  Lin- 
guistic attainments  of  the  technical  order,  while  an  indis- 
pensable portion  of  his  minimum  equipment,  form  no 
more  than  a  portion.  His  manhood  must  be  touched  to 
fine,  to  large  issues.  Through  his  humanity  the  subject- 
matter,  if  it  is  to  be  effective,  must  receive  exemplifica- 
tion by  a  species  of  incarnation.  Or,  as  it  may  be  put 
otherwise,  his  personal  equation  will  constitute  the 
dominating  element  in  his  method;  on  its  operation  suc- 
cess or  failure  will  hang.  To  illustrate  by  a  personal 
reminiscence.  My  Latin,  though  never  any  too  good, 
was  always  better  than  my  Greek.  But  Greek  interested 
me  more,  and  with  high  likelihood  exerted  a  more  power- 
ful influence  over  my  intellectual  experience.  And  why  ? 
Because  Jebb  occupied  the  desk.  Need  I  add  that  Jebbs 
are  not  to  be  picked  up  at  every  corner?  To  be  quite 
plain  and  possibly  not  entirely  pleasant,  if  culture  studies 
lag  or  fail  to  attract,  seek  the  cause,  not  in  their  material, 
not  in  some  social  tendency — the  present  ubiquitous 
scapegoat;  but  blame  their  exponents.  In  respect  of 
effective  representation,  culture  studies  in  our  midst 
have  still  much  to  learn  from  the  shining  examples  among 
our  cousins  oversea. 

Secondly,  the  linguistic  basis,  which  alone  guarantees 
one  deliverance  from  the  numerous  mares'  nests  so 
notorious  in  culture  subjects,  can  be  built  up  only  in 
very  small  classes.  The  practical  difficulties  today  of 
reducing  classes  to  fifteen,  or  twenty,  at  the  outside, 
happen  to  be  a  most  serious  factor.  Those  of  you — and 
there  are  many  here  now — who  know  at  first-hand  the 
conditions  inseparable  from  entire  groups  of  our  schools, 


Culture  Studies  77 

need  no  information  of  mine  on  this  matter.  Likely 
enough,  too,  no  means  of  immediate  rehef  loom  up. 
Yet  only  when  these  limitations  disappear  is  that  per- 
sonal attention,  the  prerequisite  of  a  sure  and  sound 
foundation,  obtainable.  In  large  classes,  the  best  suffer 
for  the  worst;  those  who  stand  in  direst  need  of  the 
ph\'sician  receive  the  smallest,  the  most  diluted  doses. 

In  the  third  place,  culture  studies  ought  to  be  begun 
at  an  early  age.  Ten  is  not  too  soon!  For  only  thus 
can  we  benefit  those  who  must  specialize,  particularly 
in  the  workaday  world  or  with  a  view  to  near  practical 
pursuits,  ere  the  years  of  adolescence  have  flown  far. 
On  the  sea  of  troubles  beating  here  I  need  not  enter,  save 
to  say  that  each  community  must  undertake  it  in  its 
own  way,  and  that  the  way  will  differ  with  the  contrasted 
accompaniments  resulting  from  varied  stages  of  social 
development. 

Fourthly,  jump  now  to  the  other  end  of  the  educational 
ladder,  where  our  heads  strike  against  the  stars  of  the 
university  firmament,  only,  alas,  to  discover  sometimes, 
with  Alice,  that  they  are  '' tea-trays  twinkling  in  the  sky." 
On  this  level  the  culture  studies  suffer  sad  impediment, 
because  the  demands  precedent  to  any  original  work 
really  worth  while  are  so  extensive.  Not  long  ago  an 
official  of  a  society,  founded  in  this  university  for  the 
laudable  object  of  encouraging  research  among  students, 
asked  me  if  I  had  any  pupils  engaged  in  such  pursuits. 
Perforce,  my  reply  w^as  in  the  negative;  for,  as  I  remarked, 
the  road  to  original  work  in  philosophy  is  barred  by  a 
very  pretty  preliminary  examination.  A  man  must  com- 
mand five  languages,  and  a  sixth,  nay,  a  seventh  and  an 
eighth,  are  necessary  for  certain  fields  of  the  subject. 
The  culture  student  faces  the  problem  of  entire  personal 


78  Latin  and  Greek 

reconstruction,  before  he  reaches  the  point  where  he  may 
christen  himself  "expert."  I  recall  vividly  how  pleased 
I  felt  when,  at  the  end  of  several  years'  severe  work  in 
philosophy — work  which  set  out  from  a  rather  extensive 
basis  in  Greek,  Latin,  French,  English  literature,  and 
elementary  science — the  late  Master  of  Balliol^  informed 
me,  reporting  in  the  most  casual  manner  possible  on  one 
of  my  great  efforts:  "Mr.  Wenley,  at  last  you  show  some 
glimmerings."  The  self-sacrifice  demanded,  in  the  way 
of  readjusting  one's  preconceived  ideas,  tells  but  a  tithe 
of  the  tale;  and,  as  all  who  have  been  through  the  mill 
recognize,  just  such  self-sacrifice  is  one  of  the  most  ter- 
rible concessions  to  render.  Lapse  of  time,  range  of 
information,  liveliness  of  vital  interest,  wealth  of  books 
and  other  material,  foreign  travel — all  go  to  swell  the 
sum-total  of  the  practical  difficulty.  And  what  can  we 
say  on  the  other  side?  Nothing  but  this:  "Very  true! 
But  the  man  who  has  really  arrived!  What  a  fellow  he 
has  managed  to  make  himself!  What  an  impression  of 
reserve  power  in  the  things  of  the  spirit  he  conveys! 
What  a  magnetism  of  rarely  molded  intellectual  char- 
acter wherewith  to  charm  others  within  the  precincts! 
Here  at  length  we  look  upon  one  who  cannot  be  safely 
omitted  from  the  equipment  of  an  educational  institution ! " 

.     .     .     .    thou  hast  great  allies; 
Thy  friends  are  exultations,  agonies, 
And  love,  and  Man's  unconquerable  mind. 

Finally,  tumbling  down  our  ladder  to  its  stand  on  the 
raw  earth,  we  are  brought  up  with  a  severe  bump  against 
the  inertia  of  the  people.  "Lord!  what  do  they  under- 
stand?" cries  Kipling.     Be  it  observed,  nature  has  made 

» Edward  Caird. 


Culture  Studies  79 

them  parents,  political  fortune  has  induced  them  to  foot 
the  bills,  and  psychological  hallucination  has  led  them 
to  prophesy  as  authorities  on  matters  educational.  Ladies 
and  gentlemen,  it's  our  psychology  that  besets  us  \^dth 
dangers,  the  more  subtle  that  they  are  neither  touched 
nor  tasted.  The  suicidal  lunatics  of  the  intellect,  those 
obsessed  on  one  subject  or  another,  roam  at  large  outside 
Pontiac.  The  parent,  not  the  pupil,  plays  the  part  of 
natural  enemy  to  the  teacher,  universal  literature  bearing 
multitudinous  witness.  From  Aristophanes,  whose  allu- 
sions to  us  would  scarce  pass  muster  even  on  the  closing 
day  of  a  local  legislature,  through  Plato  to  Horace,  with 
his  "Stripesome  Orbilius";  thence,  through  the  variegated 
squabbles  of  the  Alexandrian  age,  to  mediaeval  times, 
when  even  a  Gregory  the  Great  "would  blush  to  have 
Holy  Scripture  subjected  to  the  rule  of  grammar,"  and 
to  the  Renaissance,  with  Bruno's  diatribes  on  Oxford 
and  other  places  where  teachers  do  congregate;  thence 
to  Shakespeare,  with  his  Holof ernes  and  Sir  Hugh  Evans; 
thence  to  Johnson,  who  has  recorded  that  a  schoolmaster 
is  a  pedant,  one  who  makes  a  vain  display  of  his  learning; 
thence  to  the  nightmare  of  Shelley's  young  life,  the  brutal 
Dr.  Keate,  of  Eton;  and  to  Dickens'  Dr.  Blimber,  who 
"seemed,  at  every  stride  he  took,  to  look  about  him  as 
though  he  were  saying,  'Can  anybody  have  the  goodness 
to  indicate  any  subject,  in  any  direction,  on  which  I  am 
uninformed?  I  rather  think  not'";  to  his  Mr.  Creakle, 
who  "cuts  a  joke  before  he  beats  an  unhappy  culprit, 
and  we  laugh — miserable  little  dogs,  we  laugh,  with  our 
visages  as  white  as  ashes,  and  our  hearts  sinking  into  our 
boots";  to  his  Dr.  Strong,  whose  dictionary  "might  be 
done  in  one  thousand  six  hundred  and  forty-nine  years, 
counting  from  the  doctor's  last,  or  sixty-second,  birth- 


80  Latin  and  Greek 

day";  and  to  his  immortal  Wackford  Squeers,  sentenced 
at  length  to  Botany  Bay;  thence  to  Carlyle's  "hide- 
bound pedants"  at  Edinburgh  university;  and  finally 
to  the  vulgarian  who  parades  an  ignorance  that  positively 
amounts  to  genius  in  the  columns  of  the  latest  daily 
paper;  all  swell  one  plaint— the  teacher  is  an  abomination 
to  the  Lord.  And  for  an  obvious  reason.  "They  know 
just  enough  of  teaching,"  as  has  been  said  brilliantly, 
"not  to  know  that  they  know  nothing  about  it  at  all." 
These  be  our  masters,  and  to  the  culture  studies  they  tend 
to  become  taskmasters,  exacting  the  full  tale  of  bricks, 
without  straw.  Let  us  recognize,  however,  that  the 
circumstances  of  life  place  one  dangerous  weapon  in  their 
hands.  All  folk  cannot  be  educated  in  the  same  way; 
education  was  made  for  man,  not  man  for  education. 
Yet,  these  very  circumstances  furnish  the  defensive 
armor.  Society — label  it  aristocratic,  oUgarchic,  social- 
istic, anarchistic,  democratic,  monohyphic  (I  don't  know 
what  that  means,  but  it's  a  good  word);  call  it  by  any 
name  known  under  heaven  to  men — society,  I  say,  cannot 
dispense  with  the  directing  element.  And  the  primacy  of 
this  element  must  needs  rest  eventually  upon  a  basis  of 
superior  education.  If  not,  the  society  will  go  to  pieces 
sooner  rather  than  later.  For  such,  culture  studies  will 
in  the  long  run  always  prove  indispensable.  For  society 
exists  to  make  men.  And,  if  education  be  a  fitting — 
that  is,  a  training  in  and  for  fitness — then  assuredly 
society  will  require  the  best  for  those  to  whom  it  intrusts 
control.  Remember,  the  converse  of  corruptio  optimi 
pessima  holds  true  more  uniformly  through  the  generations 
than  even  the  maxim  itself. 

But  I  must  have  done,  or  you  will  liken  me  to  the 
Platte  River,  babbling  along  its  two  thousand  miles  of 


Culture  Studies  81 

length    in   its    single    foot    of    depth.     I  console  myself, 
however,  with  the  thought:   It  has  tributaries. 

In  thanking  you  for  your  attention,  may  I  add  a  very 
last  word.  At  some  future  time,  when  the  waters  of  Lethe 
shall  have  passed  over  this  address,  I  should  like  to  solilo- 
quize similarly  upon  "The  Nature  of  Scientific  Studies." 
They,  also,  seek  and  must  exercise  increasingly  their 
peculiar  influence  upon  our  educational  arrangements. 
Moreover,  in  the  long  run,  our  present  reaction  against 
preliminary  discipline  cannot  fail  to  affect  them  and  their 
learners  as  adversely  as  it  has  affected  the  culture  studies 
these  last  few  years. 


SYMPOSIUM    I 

THE    VALUE    OF    HUMANISTIC,     PARTICULARLY    CLASSICAL, 

STUDIES   AS   A   PREPARATION    FOR   THE    STUDY 

OF   MEDICINE 

I.    THE  VALUE  OF  GREEK  AND  LATIN  TO  THE 
MEDICAL  STUDENT 

VICTOR  C.  VAUGHAN,  M.D.,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 

Dean  of  the  Department  of  Medicine  and  Surgery,  University  of 

Michigan 

The  disciplinary  value  of  the  study  of  the  classics  has 

been  generally  recognized  by  educators  for  hundreds  of 

years,  and  it  is  no  less  today  than  it  was  a  generation  ago. 

All  teachers  agree  that  there  is  no  royal  road  to  knowledge, 

and  this  sentiment  has  been  attested  by  such  axiomatic 

phrases  as  nulla  palma  sine  pulvere,  ad  astra  per  aspera, 

etc.,  which  all  have  approved  and  none  denied  since  the 

time  of  Cicero  and  Sallust.     Nil  sine  magna  vita  labore 

dedit  mortalibus,  ''There  is  no  excellence  without  great 

labor,"  is  trite  enough,  but  as  true  as  trite;  and  now  that 

we  know  more  of  the  operations  of  the  mental  faculties 

than  the  best  teachers  of  former  generations  knew,  the 

truth  of  this  old  "saw"  has  been  intensified  to  the  nth. 

power.     No  one  can  become  a  student  of  anything  until 

he  learns  how  to  study,  and  he  does  this  only  under  the 

whip  of  application.     No  knowledge,  save  that  of  the 

most  superficial  character,  is  easily  acquired.     Like  gold, 

true  knowledge  lies  beneath  the  surface,  and  he  who  would 

possess  it  must  dig  for  it,  and  systematic  education  should 

begin  in  learning  how  to  use  the  senses — the  pick  and 

shovel,  as  it  were,  of  the  mind.     The  five  senses  are  the 

83 


84  Humanistic  Studies 

only  avenues  through  which  we  acquire  knowledge,  and 
even  the  most  brilliant  pictures  of  our  imaginations  are 
but  perceptions  previously  acquired  through  the  senses, 
and  subsequently  rearranged  and  projected  onto  the 
sensitive  retina  of  mental  vision.  Although  we  cannot 
define  mind,  we  know  something  of  its  modus  oper- 
andi. We  know  that  the  pyramidal  cells  of  the  cortex 
of  the  brain  must  be  brought  into  relation  with  the  non- 
ego;  that  this  connection  can  be  made  only  through  the 
nervous  mechanism  of  the  special  senses,  and  that  this 
machinery  does  fine  and  effective  work  only  when  nicely 
adjusted  under  the  guidance  of  long  experience.  Like 
the  gastric  cells,  the  pyramidal  cells  of  the  brain  atrophy 
with  disuse,  as  happens  when  fed  upon  predigested  food; 
and  if  I  may  express  an  opinion  here  parenthetically,  I 
will  state  that  too  much  of  this  kind  of  pabulum  is  dealt 
out  to  the  young  in  both  our  secondary  and  higher  insti- 
tutions of  learning. 

There  has  been  found  nowhere  a  better  training  for 
the  thinking  apparatus  of  the  young  than  the  study  of 
Latin  and  Greek.  The  great  number  and  variety  in  the 
inflections  of  noun  and  verb  render  close  attention  an 
absolute  necessity,  and  this,  in  and  of  itself,  is  of  the 
greatest  value  in  an  educational  way.  Carelessness  and 
superficialit}^  are  incompatible  with  any  thorough  study 
of  Greek  and  Latin.  Besides,  with  the  close  attention 
that  the  student  must  give  to  the  variations  in  the 
structure  of  words,  he  soon  begins  to  perceive  that  these 
indicate  variations  in  the  shade  of  meaning,  and  then  the 
joy  of  study  takes  possession  of  the  student.  His  obser- 
vation is  sharpened,  his  perception  becomes  more  deli- 
cate, and  he  finds  increased  pleasure  in  the  intensity  with 
which  he  seeks  fully  and  correctly  to  interpret  the  author's 


Medicine  85 

meaning.  And  this  habit  of  close  observation,  of  atten- 
tion to  detail,  of  looking  for  fine  distinctions  and  shades 
of  difference,  and  the  alertness  of  mind  possessed  by  an 
individual  of  this  habit,  will  be  of  inestimable  service  to 
him,  should  he  choose  medicine  for  his  profession,  both 
in  his  experimental  work  in  the  laboratory  and  at  the 
bedside  of  his  patient.  This  point  in  favor  of  the  study 
of  Greek  and  Latin,  it  seems  to  me,  is  not  easily  over- 
estimated. Indeed,  the  progress  of  medicine  is  determined 
largely  by  the  accuracy  and  precision  with  which  obser- 
vations are  made.  The  careless  or  the  superficial  man 
is  not  suited  either  to  the  practice  of  medicine  or  to  the 
conduct  of  experiments  for  the  elucidation  of  medical 
problems.  It  is  the  painter  who  brings  out  detail,  and 
not  the  impressionist,  who  is  needed  in  scientific  medicine. 
The  best  medical  schools  are  rapidly  advancing  their 
requirements  for  admission,  and  now  demand  from  two  to 
four  years  of  collegiate  work,  while  the  academic  facul- 
ties are  filling  these  two  to  four  years  largely  with  loosely 
regulated  electives;  and  I  am  by  no  means  certain  that 
in  fact  the  medical  student  of  today  has  a  better  prep- 
aration for  his  professional  study  than  his  prototype  of 
fifty  or  more  years  ago.  William  Harvey,  whose  keen- 
ness and  accuracy  of  observation  led  to  the  discovery  of 
the  circulation  of  the  blood,  after  many  years  devoted  to 
the  classics,  gave  five  to  the  study  of  medicine,  and  his 
fitness  was  proved  by  his  work. 

The  direct  value  of  Greek  and  Latin,  especially  of  the 
former,  as  aids  to  the  exact  meaning  of  medical  terms,  as 
shown  by  their  derivations,  is  disputed  by  no  one.  But 
some  do  claim  that  the  giving  of  from  four  to  six  years, 
or  even  more,  to  the  digging  of  Greek  roots  and  the 
trimming  of  Latin  stems  is  too  big  a  price  to  pay  for  the 


86  Humanistic  Studies 

result,  however  valuable  it  may  be;  and  possibly  this  is 
right,  if  the  student  gets  nothing  but  a  knowledge  of 
etymologj'  from  his  classical  studies,  and  if  the  time  and 
energy  given  to  the  classics  are  so  excessive  that  he  cannot 
seek  knowledge  in  other  fields.  The  education  that  best 
fits  one  for  the  study  of  medicine  certainly  should  not  be 
narrow,  and  I  would  not  have  the  preliminary  training  of 
the  prospective  medical  man  confined  to  Greek  and  Latin, 
nor  would  I  give  to  the  classics  an  undue  share  of  time 
and  energy.  But  when,  in  addressing  my  medical  stu- 
dents, I  use  a  new  term — for  instance,  when  I  speak  of 
a  "toxicogenic  bacillus"  or  a  "pathognomonic  symptom" 
— I  can  easily  distinguish  the  students  who  have  a  funda- 
mental knowledge  of  Greek  from  those  to  whom  this 
basic  language,  certainly  basic  so  far  as  medical  terms 
are  concerned — is  indeed  a  dead  language.  Years  of 
frequent  and  careful  consultation  of  the  dictionary  may 
make  good  this  plainly  evident  deficiency,  which,  however, 
does  not  exist  for  the  student  who  has  been  drilled  in 
Greek  in  his  preliminary  education.  Medicine  is,  now 
at  least,  a  rapidly  progressive  science,  and  even  the  dic- 
tionaries do  not  keep  pace  with  its  advancement.  It 
not  infrequently  happens  that  an  earnest  medical  student 
comes  to  me  with  the  statement  that  he  cannot  find  a 
certain  word — ''galactotoxismus,"  for  instance — in  his 
dictionary.  If  such  a  student  had  had  a  fundamental 
training  in  Greek,  he  would  not  have  needed  to  consult 
a  dictionary  in  order  to  ascertain  the  meaning  of  this 
word.  Besides,  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  the  best  dic- 
tionary, frequently  consulted,  cannot  give  to  one  wholly 
ignorant  of  Greek,  the  correct,  clear,  and  full  apprecia- 
tion of  the  meaning  of  such  a  word  as  "  sitotoxismus " 
as  comes  unsought  to  the  one  versed  in  Greek.     Of  the 


Medicine  87 

two  languages,  Greek  is  of  much  more  value  than  Latin 
as  an  aid  in  the  comprehension  of  medical  terms;  and  it 
seems  to  me  regrettable  that  at  least  two  years  of  good, 
solid  work  in  Greek  cannot  be  demanded  as  an  uncondi- 
tional requirement  for  admission  to  our  medical  schools. 
It  has  been  said  that  the  use  of  Latin  names  in  medi- 
cine, and  especially  in  the  writing  of  prescriptions,  is 
pure  affectation  and  should  be  discontinued.  This 
statement  is  wholly  erroneous  and  could  be  made  only 
by  one  grossly  ignorant  of  the  facts.  The  word  "salt" 
may  mean  any  one  of  a  thousand  compounds,  but  ''sodii 
chloridum"  and  "magnesii  sulphas"  are  definite  and 
signify  definite  compounds,  and  are  capable  of  only  one 
interpretation,  be  the  reader  Enghsh,  French,  German, 
Russian,  Italian,  or  Spanish.  For  the  purpose  of  desig- 
nating a  certain  plant,  or  the  extract  of  a  certain  plant, 
the  common  name  cannot  be  used,  because  it  may  not 
be  the  same  even  in  different  sections  of  the  same  country, 
while  the  scientific  or -Latin  designation  is  the  same  the 
world  over.  The  language  employed  by  an  exact  science, 
like  chemistry  or  bacteriology,  must  be  one  which  has 
already  crystallized,  and  not  one  which  nieans  one  thing 
today  and  may  have  quite  another  meaning  a  year  from 
now,  or  even  a  century  in  the  future.  We  must  not  forget, 
even  in  the  pursuit  of  the  rapidly  growing  modern  sciences, 
that  there  is  also  a  science  of  language,  and  that  it,  like 
everything  else  mundane,  comes  into  existence,  goes 
through  a  process  of  evolution,  suffers  modifications 
from  its  environment,  and  does  not  crystallize  into  exact- 
ness until  it  is  no  longer  used  orally;  and  not  until  this 
final  period  is  reached,  and  it  is  no  longer  subject  to 
material  modification,  does  it  become  the  suitable  fo^-m 
for  exact,  scientific  expression. 


88  Humanistic  Studies 

I  have  given  thus  briefly  and  imperfectly  some  of  the 
reasons  of  a  practical  character  as  to  the  value  of  Greek 
and  Latin  to  the  prospective  medical  student.  There  is 
much  more  that  might  be  said.  The  boy  who  has  not  studied 
these  languages  has  missed  the  full  and  satisfying  pleasure 
that  comes  to  him  who  reads  in  the  original  the  wonderful 
epic  of  Homer  and  the  stately  lines  of  Virgil,  has  caught 
the  full  force  of  the  eloquence  of  Demosthenes  and  of 
Cicero,  has  had  a  bout  with  Horace  and  helped  Caesar 
build  his  wonderful  bridge;  and,  mirahile  dictu,  I  believe 
that  the  boy  who  has  had  the  wider  view  given  by  a 
study  of  the  classics  will  be  all  the  stronger  in  both  experi- 
mental and  practical  medicine  on  account  of  the  knowl- 
edge and  wisdom  gained  from  the  wise  men  of  Greece  and 
Rome. 


II.    DISCUSSION  OF  DR.  VAUGHAN'S  PAPERS 

CHARLES  B.  G.  de  NANCREDE,  A.M.,  M.D.,  LL.D. 
Professor  of  Surgery,  University  of  Michigan 

I  esteem  it  a  privilege  to  address  this  assembly  for 
any  cause,  but  chiefly,  I  confess,  because  it  lies  in  your 
province,  and  you  have  the  power,  to  do  what  I  hope 
will  be  done  in  the  near  future — restore  the  study  of 
Greek  to  a  proper  position,  so  far  as  my  profession  is 
concerned. 

You  cannot  discuss  a  paper  without  disagreeing  with 
the  statements  contained  in  that  paper.  Now,  I  do  not 
disagree  with  Dr.  Vaughan,  in  the  slightest  particular. 
As  a  teacher  of  medicine  who  has  been  working  at  it 
for  thirty-seven  years,  I  surely  ought  to  be  able  to  appre- 
ciate the  importance  of  what   Dr.   Vaughan  has  said. 

»  March  29,  1906. 


Medicine  89 

While  I  cannot  say  anything  in  addition,  I  wish  to  lend 
my  support  and  give  as  much  emphasis  as  possible  to 
each  of  his  contentions;  for  an  additional  favorable 
opinion  in  any  controversy  adds  to  the  weight  of  the 
arguments  adduced  and  to  the  strength  of  the  position 
taken.  I  have  this  matter  very  much  at  heart,  which  is 
indeed  my  only  excuse  for  addressing  you.  The  medical 
profession  is  not  only  employing  Greek  and  Latin  terms, 
using  them  at  all  times,  but  it  is  also  coining  them,  and 
often  doing  so  very  incorrectly.  The  way  Latin  begin- 
nings have  Greek  endings  tacked  onto  them  has  come  to 
be  an  abomination.  Such  illiteracy  is  making  a  laugh- 
ing-stock of  the  profession  in  the  opinion  of  men  of  the 
most  ordinary  culture. 

But  there  is  something  worse  than  that.  It  is  surely 
breaking  one  of  the  first  rules  of  pedagogy  to  try  to  convey 
information  concerning  abstruse  subjects  to  those  who 
have  never  heard  anything  resembling  these  new  ideas, 
in  a  technical  language  that  they  cannot  understand — 
in  an  unknown  tongue,  as  it  were.  This  is  just  what  we 
do,  and,  as  Dr.  Vaughan  has  said,  how  many  thousands 
of  times,  as  I  look  at  the  faces  of  my  students,  do  I  see 
a  puzzled  look  or  wrinkled  forehead,  because  they  do  not 
understand  the  meaning  of  the  technical  terms  I  am 
employing,  and  which  I  must  stop  to  explain!  It  is  not 
my  business  to  teach  the  meaning  of  ordinary  technical 
terms.  I  should  be  able  to  use  any  technical  term  that 
I  see  fit  to  illustrate  the  subject,  and  the  student  should, 
if  reasonably  conversant  with  Greek  and  Latin,  after 
a  little  reflection  be  able  to  understand  it.  I  can  hardly 
recall  a  technical  term  that  as  a  student  I  had  to  look  up 
in  the  dictionary.  Thus,  lack  of  knowledge  of  the  dead 
languages  proves  a  serious  hindrance  to  teaching  medi- 


90  Humanistic  Studies 

cine,  because  we  compel  the  student  to  learn  a  language 
composed  of  terms  which  to  him  are  meaningless  but 
with  which  he  is  to  acquire  knowledge  of  entirely  new  sub- 
jects— subjects  to  which  he  should  devote  all  his  energies. 
This  is  bad  enough;  but  what  is  still  worse  is,  that 
those  who  have  never  studied  Latin  or  Greek  very  rarely 
take  the  trouble  to  consult  the  dictionary  to  ascertain 
the  meanings  of  scientific  terms.  They  may  ask  their 
neighbor  what  one  means,  when  he  probably  knows  less 
than  they;  and  so  they  go  through  their  medical  curricu- 
lum and  through  their  life  not  understanding,  or  actually 
misunderstanding,  what  certain  terms  mean.  I  find, 
when  I  am  examining  students,  that  they  often  do  not 
know  the  meaning  of  the  technical  terms  they  are  employ- 
ing. In  giving  the  history  of  a  case  they  use  terms  that 
convey  the  opposite  meaning  to  the  one  which  is  intended 
to  be  conveyed. 


III.    THE   VALUE   OF   HUMANISTIC   STUDIES   AS   A 
PREPARATION  FOR  THE  STUDY  OF  MEDICINE 

WILBERT  B.  HINSDALE,  A.M.,  M.D. 
Dean  of  the  Homeopathic  Medical  College,  University  of  Michigan 

All  knowledge  has,  of  course,  value;  but  not  to  any 
single  individual.  In  its  distribution  throughout  the 
world  there  are  appreciative  and  utiHzing  persons  who, 
by  each  appropriating  different  parts,  render  it  all  profit- 
able. How  profitable  a  certain  branch  may  be  to  one 
depends  upon  many  different  things,  some  of  which  are, 
how  much  it  will  benefit  him  in  his  station  as  a  self-reliant 
worker  for  a  living,  as  a  member  of  society,  as  a  citizen, 
as  a  person  with  or  without  an  appreciation  of  it.  Again, 
granting  that  a  particular  kind  of  knowledge  has  value 
to  a  certain  individual,  the  question  arises  whether  some 


Medicine  91 

other  kind,  or  more  of  another  kind,  might  not  make  him 
more  efficient.  His  efficiency  depends  upon  adjustabihty 
to  his  special  vocation  which,  in  turn,  is  based  upon  a 
preHminary  or  preparatory  training.  The  student  who 
has  educational  qualifications  or  accomplishments,  aside 
from  those  which  have  a  necessary  bearing  upon  his 
chosen  profession,  is  the  best  prepared,  not  only  for  life, 
but,  to  use  a  biological  term,  for  his  specialization.  He 
should  be  so  prepared  as  not  to  become  an  intellectual 
malformation,  but  a  well-balanced  man.  If  a  liberal 
preparation  includes  the  humanities,  then  of  course  their 
importance  is  conceded.  On  this  point  there  is  probably 
a  decided  difference  of  opinion,  and  to  discuss  it  leads 
to  disputation.  If  the  humanities  are  not  essential, 
except  in  so  far  as  they  may  have  a  few  so-called  practi- 
cal bearings  upon  a  professional  education,  they  must 
be  assigned  to  the  optional  class.  There  are  those 
persons  whose  views  upon  the  subject,  if  their  reasoning 
be  carried  to  the  ultimate  conclusions,  must  lead  them  to 
think  that  the  preparation  for  medicine  should  begin  in 
the  kindergarten.  On  the  other  hand,  others  do  not 
consider  that  there  ought  to  be  any  particular  difference 
in  the  elementary  preparation  of  students  for  all  the  pro- 
fessions; they  think  that  the  foundation  for  a  liberal 
education  is  the  foundation  for  a  professional  education. 
The  views  of  this  class  must  lead  ultimately  to  the  con- 
clusion that  if,  when  the  student  begins  to  specialize  in 
medicine,  he  has  not  acquired  sufficient  special  knowledge 
to  enable  him  to  round  out  a  thorough  training  in  the 
ordinary  four  years,  the  course  should  be  lengthened, 
either  by  a  preliminary  year  for  special  foundation  work, 
or  by  an  introductory  course  to  the  main  subjects  as 
they  are  taken  up  in  routine. 


92  Humanistic  Studies 

Some  seem  to  maintain  that  this  is  particularly  a 
transitional  age  in  the  adjustments  of  studies;  that, 
after  a  while,  we  shall  get  matters  "fixed."  The  fact  is, 
all  ages  are  transitional.  Adjustment  by  virtue  of  human 
progress  blends  into  or  out  of  non-adjustment.  There 
is  no  such  thing  as  fixation.  At  the  present  time,  as  the 
affairs  of  the  world  are  going,  the  ordinary  physician, 
like  the  average  lawyer,  teacher,  journalist,  and  clergy- 
man, does  not  care  for  education  as  an  accomplishment. 
He  recoils  from  severe  training  and  hard  reading.  His 
ideal  is  the  ordinary  routine  business  success.  This 
state  of  affairs  must  be  tolerated  so  long  as  the  student 
considers  life  a  failure  if  he  cannot  graduate  at  an  early 
age  regardless  of  preparation;  or  while  the  leading  ques- 
tion is:  ''What  are  the  minimum  requirements  of  the 
law  and  the  curriculum ?"  "How  is  such  or  such  a  study 
going  to  help  me  to  be  a  doctor?"  is  the  commonest 
inquiry  from  the  ordinary  medical  student. 

The  learned  physician  recoils  from  the  thought  of 
Professor  James's  description  of  the  uneducated  person. 
He  abhors  being  "nonplussed  by  all  but  the  most  habit- 
ual situations."  He  wishes  to  have  his  resources  so 
organized  and  powers  of  conduct  so  great  as  to  fit  him 
with  as  perfect  relations  as  possible  to  his  social  and 
physical  world.  He  works  to  be  as  well  prepared  as 
possible,  to  educate  himself  "by  means  of  the  examples 
with  which  his  memory  is  stored,  and  of  the  abstract 
conceptions  which  he  has  acquired  from  circumstances 
in  which  he  never  was  placed  before." 

The  physician  should  have  special,  exact,  and  ample 
knowledge  of  the  many  scientific  branches  that  consti- 
tute what  is  generally  summed  up  in  the  term  "medi- 
cine."    These  branches  he  should  comprehend  in  their 


Medicine  93 

interdependences  and  true  and  broad  relations,  pursuing 
them  with  a  sanctified  devotion.  There  is  no  branch  of 
learning  which  may  not  materially  contribute  to  such  a 
grasp  of  his  subject.  While  he  cannot  read  or  study 
everything  indiscriminately,  he  will  have  an  elective 
affinity  for  some  subject  or  subjects  in  the  broad  field  of 
knowledge  that  he  will  make  conducive  to  his  peculiar 
needs,  although  he  may  not  be  able  to  explain  just  how 
or  why.  He  should  know  the  virtues,  vices,  and  needs 
of  those  who  make  up  his  social  environment,  and  appre- 
ciate the  claims  that  neighbor,  community,  and  state 
have  upon  him.  To  be  a  wise  citizen,  he  should  have  a 
historical  and  present  knowledge  of  the  political  institu- 
tions by  which  he  is  governed.  The  humanities  have  here 
special  importance,  if  he  is  interested  in  a  historical  study 
of  the  duties  of  citizenship.  The  physician  must  have 
a  penetrating  insight  into  human  nature;  not  humanity 
as  a  mass,  but  a  scrutinizing,  differentiating,  penetrable 
gaze  into  individuals  that  reveals  to  his  trained  percep- 
tions the  reasons  for  the  one  under  observation  being 
mentally,  morally,  and  physically  different  from  every- 
body else.  The  educated  physician  is  larger  than  his 
profession  and  wider  than  his  allotted  space  in  the  com- 
munity. 

He  does  not  consider  that  the  pre-medical  branches 
he  studied  in  school  are  to  be  laid  aside.  With  him, 
preparation  and  specialization  go  on  hand  in  hand.  As 
the  superstructure  is  to  be  enlarged,  the  foundations 
must  be  extended.  If  the  building  advances  in  a  par- 
ticular direction,  in  that  same  direction  must  the  prepar- 
atory or  substructure  expand.  If  he  aspires  to  be  an 
author,  language  and  the  powers  of  expression  must  be 
studied.     If  he  delights  in  bibliography  and  lore  of  the 


94  Humanistic  Studies 

profession,  then  linguistics  must  be  carried  along.  If 
he  mingles  with  educated  people,  he  must  have  the  faculty 
of  appreciation  and  the  powers  of  address  from  necessity. 
If  he  would  be  looked  upon,  as  were  the  doctors  of  a 
century  or  so  ago,  as  the  learned  man  of  the  community, 
he  must  keep  ahead  of  his  devotees.  For  his  recreation 
and  self-entertainment,  he  is  entitled  to  give  his  tastes 
a  wide  range,  but  should  avoid  permitting  his  indulgence 
in  this  respect  to  become  a  dissipation.  No  man  is  up 
to  the  full  degree  of  professional  efficiency  who  permits 
his  leisure  to  be  frittered  away  by  unprofitable  recreations. 
Even  recreation  has  character  and,  be  it  ever  so  relaxing, 
should  be  graced  by  dignity.  Literature,  art,  music, 
brilliant  associations,  politics,  languages,  poetry,  a  side 
branch  in  science,  biography,  the  "humanities" — all 
have  their  recreative  and  great  cultural  value. 

While  I  have  referred  to  these  subjects  as  recreations, 
they  cannot  fail  to  have  a  reactive  benefit  upon  strictly 
professional  work,  and  to  be  contributory  to  one's  acumen 
in  handling  and  interpreting  people,  even  in  estimating 
their  modalities  in  regard  to  the  administration  of  reme- 
dies. In  some  of  these  subjects,  physicians,  aside  from 
being  foremost  in  their  specialties,  have  attained  dis- 
tinction. William  Harvey  was  one  of  the  best  mathe- 
maticians of  his  day.  Daniel  G.  Brinton  was  perhaps 
the  best  quahfied  man  of  his  time  upon  the  subject  of 
American  archaeology.  O.  W.  Holmes,  while  he  main- 
tained his  position  as  professor  in  a  medical  college, 
gained  vastly  more  distinction  as  a  literary  man  than  as  a 
doctor.  The  late  Timothy  F.  Allen,  one  of  New  York's 
leading  physicians,  became  a  noted  botanist  and  was 
regarded  as  the  best  American  authority  upon  the  Chara- 
cea.     Virchow   was   learned   in   statesmanship.     Metch- 


Medicine  95 

nikoff  declares  that,  aside  from  what  is  ordinarily  referred 
to  as  biological  sciences,  folklore,  philosophy,  religion, 
language,  and  poetry  of  all  races  and  stages  of  culture 
must  be  studied  in  order  to  comprehend  the  real  phj^sical 
and  physiological  properties  of  man. 

Probably  the  most  conspicuous  living  example  of  the 
physician  who  combines  literary  pursuits  with  his  scientific 
work  is  Dr.  Osier.  He  takes  wide  excursions  into  the 
domain  of  the  classics,  and  draws  freely  for  his  illustra- 
tions upon  ancient  literature,  history,  and  biography. 
Still  he  writes  that  the  biological  studies  give  to  a  man 
clearer  points  of  view  and  an  attitude  of  mind  more 
serviceable  in  a  working-day  world  than  other  sciences,  or 
even  the  humanities.  Scholastic  studies  are  not  incom- 
patible with  ample  professional  qualifications. 

Just  now  there  is  an  awakening  interest  in  historical 
medicine.  Six  medical  colleges  in  the  United  States 
(Yale,  Chicago,  Johns  Hopkins,  Maryland,  Buffalo, 
Minnesota)  have  courses  in  medical  history.  Original 
records,  manuscripts,  inscriptions,  and  even  excava- 
tions are  being  ransacked  for  mines  of  neglected  and  over- 
looked discoveries.  Besides,  the  relations  that  existed 
between  the  doctors  of  medicine  and  the  Pope  and  the 
clergy,  the  governors  and  the  people,  are  being  studied 
in  the  original  languages.  Even  the  old  Hebrew  writings 
and  Egyptian  inscriptions  are  subjected  to  investigation 
from  the  physician's  standpoint. 

Before  a  young  man  enters  upon  the  study  of  medicine, 
the  law,  as  well  as  the  college  course,  requires  that  he 
have  a  specified  degree  of  attainment  in  certain  branches 
of  study.  These  are  regarded  as  essential  to  a  compre- 
hension of  the  fundamentals  of  the  subject.  What 
values  are  to  be  placed  upon  particular  branches  has 


96  Humanistic  Studies 

caused  much  discussion  and  disagreement,  but  the  aver- 
age high-school  course  is  now  agreed  upon  as  a  minimum. 
Some  authorities  maintain  that  certain  studies  are  the 
all-essential;  others  hold  that  a  mind  trained  to  con- 
tinuity of  thought  and  the  capacity  of  independent 
reasoning  from  facts  and  data  to  rational  conclusions  is 
sufficient,  and  favor  giving  the  student  a  wide  choice  of 
election. 

According  to  an  old  system,  the  physician  classified 
his  people  by  temperaments;  a  method  not  without 
merit.  There  is  the  nervous  temperament,  the  phleg- 
matic temperament,  the  sanguinous  temperament,  and 
so  on.  In  a  similar  way  students  may  be  grouped  in 
regard  to  their  tastes.  One  has  a  predilection  for  lan- 
guages, one  for  mathematics,  others  for  literature,  and 
some  for  the  classics ;  and  so  through  the  list.  From  their 
earliest  school  days  they  frequently  manifest  these  pref- 
erences, which  may  be  developed  into  delightful  accom- 
plishments and  carried  along  with  routine  work. 

By  the  fixed-rule  system,  only  such  language,  mathe- 
matics, history,  and  natural  science  are  measured  out  to 
the  pupil  as  it  is  thought  he  should  know  so  as  to  enter 
understandingly  upon  medical  branches.  According  to 
the  other  theory,  even  if  he  be  deficient  a  count  or  two  in 
trigonometry,  for  instance,  he  may  be  ahead  of  the  aver- 
age in  Latin,  Greek,  English,  elementary  psychology,  or 
some  other  disciplinary  branch,  so  as  to  comply  with  an 
elastic  standard. 

Of  course,  it  is  appreciated  that  so  long  as  the  high 
school  is  the  gateway  for  the  ordinary  student  to  a  medical 
course,  there  is  not  so  much  hope  of  his  becoming  liber- 
ally educated  as  there  will  be  when  the  academic  college 
courses  are  added  to  the  list  of  entrance  requirements. 


Medicine  97 

However,  if  with  nothing  but  a  high-school  training  a 
student  of  the  intellectual  diathesis  starts  out  in  medi- 
cine, he  will,  with  a  little  latitude  for  his  tastes,  round  out 
to  a  high  degree  of  scholarly  attainments. 

The  student  who  has  the  elective  privilege  and  selects 
only  easy  courses  will  probably  never  make  a  scholar 
unless,  perchance,  he  experiences  the  quickening  influence 
that  occasionally  comes  from  contact  with  an  inspiring 
teacher.  In  his  choice  of  studies  he  betrays  his  instinct 
and  gives  evidence  as  to  whether  he  had  better  or  had 
better  not  be  urged  to  take  what  is  usually  referred  to  as 
advanced  work.  The  student  with  the  scholarly  pre- 
disposition and  a  taste  for  the  humanistic  studies  should 
be  encouraged  to  pursue  them.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
his  taste  incline  him  strongly  in  another  direction,  why 
not  let  him  gravitate  that  way?  But  there  is  danger 
at  this  point  of  his  being  prejudiced  by  some  scientific 
enthusiast  who  does  not  himself  comprehend  the  impor- 
tance of  any  group  of  studies  besides  those  which  he  has 
himself  too  narrowly  pursued. 

If  I  may  be  allowed  to  presume  that  there  is  anything 
conclusive  about  what  I  have  said,  I  will  make  the  follow- 
ing summary: 

1.  A  preparation  for  medicine  is  not  particularly  unlike 
preparation  for  anj^  other  specialized  work.  It  contem- 
plates the  training  of  the  faculties  and  acquisition  of 
classified  knowledge. 

2.  The  average  graduate,  at  the  present  time,  will 
enter  the  practice  of  medicine  as  a  business  project,  and 
will  not  strive  for  lofty  educational  ideals. 

3.  The  ideal  physician  will  appreciate  the  value  of  all 
knowledge  and  delight  to  become  proficient  in  such  intel- 
lectual activities  as  he  may  be  led  to  by  a  refined  taste. 


98  Humanistic  Studies 

4.  So  soon  as  practicable,  advanced  or  collegiate  work 
should  be  required  for  admission  to  the  medical  college. 

5.  In  the  advanced  studies  a  wide  latitude  should  be 
permitted  to  the  conscientious  student,  that  he  may 
cultivate  his  preferred  branches. 

6.  As  the  humanities,  such  as  the  classics,  philosophy, 
history,  the  arts  of  reasoning,  and  so  forth,  have  great 
cultural  and  disciplinary  value,  students  should  be  encour- 
aged to  pursue  them  as  a  historic  background  against 
which  the  present  appears. 

7.  The  greatest  merit  of  these  studies  is  not  to  be 
sought  in  their  technical  values,  although  a  knowledge  of 
Latin  and  Greek  is  time-saving  in  the  etymological  trans- 
lation of  words  and  phrases,  and  facilitates  the  learning 
of  modern  languages;  but  in  that  they  conduce  to  a 
better  interpretation  of  literature,  both  medical  and 
general,  in  a  broader  sense,  and  are  of  great  refining 
worth. 


SYMPOSIUM  II 

THE    VALUE     OF    HUMANISTIC,     PARTICULARLY    CLASSICAL, 

STUDIES  AS  A  PREPARATION  FOR  THE  STUDY  OF 

ENGINEERING 

I.    THE  PLACE  OF  THE  HUMANITIES  IN  THE 
TRAINING  OF  ENGINEERS 

HERBERT  C.  SADLER,  Sc.D. 
Professor  of  Marine  Engineering,  University  of  Michigan 

The  subject  of  the  technical  training  of  engineers  is 
one  that  has  been  treated  at  some  length  by  many  writers 
within  the  last  decade.  In  the  majority  of  cases,  however, 
little  or  no  attention  has  been  paid  to  the  earlier  or  pre- 
paratory education  of  those  intending  to  follow  this  pro- 
fession . 

The  engineering  profession  naturally  demands  a 
training  along  highly  specialized  lines,  and  the  considera- 
tion of  this  fact  has  to  a  certain  extent  overshadowed  that 
of  the  purely  preparatory,  or  what  may  be  called  the 
general  education,  which  must  form  a  basis  for  this 
specialization. 

In  the  engineering  department — and,  it  must  also  be 
confessed,  in  the  departments  of  literature,  science,  and 
the  arts — of  our  universities  the  utilitarian  spirit  has  of 
late  assumed  a  somewhat  prominent  place;  and,  in  the 
endeavor  to  devote  his  time  solely  to  those  subjects  which 
he  considers  will  be  useful  or  money-producing  imme- 
diately after  graduation,  the  student  in  all  probability 
will  omit  those  studies  which  are  of  the  nature  of  general 
culture.     The  time  which  the  average  man   can  spend 

99 


100  Humanistic  Studies 

at  the  university  being  limited  to  four  years,  and  in  the 
case  of  most  modern  engineering  courses  four  years  at 
a  considerable  pressure,  the  demands  of  the  purely  tech- 
nical studies,  or  those  bearing  immediately  upon  the 
same,  have  rendered  the  introduction  of  any  culture 
studies  an  impossibility.  This  is  due  to  the  fact  that, 
owing  to  the  recent  developments  within  the  sphere  of 
science,  there  is  so  much  more  to  teach  in  the  old  subjects, 
so  much  that  the  students  ought  to  know  about  the  new, 
that  four  years  is  all  too  short  even  for  the  technical  work. 

With  this  atmosphere  pervading  the  educational 
world,  it  is  not  very  surprising  that  the  student,  in  decid- 
ing upon  the  selection  of  certain  courses,  will  ask  himself : 
"Is  this  particular  study  going  to  be  useful  to  me?"  In 
his  somewhat  immature  judgment  he  is  apt  to  lay  greatest 
stress  upon  those  subjects  which  he  imagines  may  be 
converted  most  easily  into  cash  in  the  immediate  future, 
losing  sight  of  the  fact  that  there  may  be  other  things  in 
life  besides  the  mere  accumulation  of  wealth  or  expert- 
ness  in  his  profession. 

It  may  be  pertinent  at  this  time  to  consider  the  posi- 
tion of  the  engineer  in  the  economic  and  social  world  of 
today.  In  the  early  days  of  the  profession  the  only  rep- 
resentative was  the  military  engineer;  but  as  time  went 
on,  operations  other  than  those  of  a  military  or  semi- 
military  character  demanded  men  whose  training  was 
not  necessarily  along  military  lines.  Hence  arose  the 
term  "civil  engineer"  as  applying  to  those  non-military 
men  engaged  in  engineering  in  a  general  sense.  The 
advent  of  steam  and  machinery  led  to  a  new  class, 
known  latterly  as  "mechanical  engineers,"  this  term  being 
used  to  distinguish  the  men  who  specialized  in  moving 
machinery  rather  than  in  statical  structure.     In  these 


Engineering  101 

later  days  the  name  of  the  various  classes  of  engineers  is 
legion,  but  it  is  necessary  here  to  emphasize  the  second 
main  division  of  the  engineering  profession,  as  in  the 
early  days  it  led  to  the  introduction  of  a  class  of  men 
entirely  different  from  the  civil  engineers.  Even  at  the 
present  day  many  are  apt  to  couple  the  term  "engineer" 
with  machinery,  and  its  accompanying  adjuncts  of  over- 
alls, grease,  and  grime. 

In  the  early  days  before  the  development  of  engineer- 
ing as  a  science,  the  only  method  of  obtaining  knowl- 
edge of  machinery  was  by  close  and  intimate  contact  with 
it.  Engineering  courses  at  universities  were  unknown, 
and  those  who  took  up  this  profession — or,  more  strictly 
speaking,  trade — were  in  the  majority  of  cases  men  of 
somewhat  limited  attainments,  so  far  as  general  educa- 
tion or  culture  was  concerned.  As  time  went  on,  and 
engineering  problems  began  to  attract  the  attention  of 
scientific  men,  the  methods  of  the  profession  began  to 
change.  The  old  "rule  of  thumb"  gave  place  to  scientific 
method,  and  the  demand  for  men  with  a  thorough  ground- 
ing in  science — or,  in  other  words,  educated  men — 
increased.  The  reason  was  not  far  to  seek.  New  prob- 
lems were  arising  continually  and  these  required  some- 
thing more  than  mere  practical  experience  in  their  solu- 
tion. Twenty  years  ago  the  employer  looked  askance 
upon  the  graduate  of  a  university  or  technical  school; 
today  the  majority  of  large  concerns  will  employ  no  one 
unless  he  is  a  graduate.  A  remark  made  recently  by  the 
manager  of  one  of  these  may  perhaps  be  of  interest  as 
showing  his  complete  change  of  front;  he  said,  in  speak- 
ing of  the  work  that  a  university  should  endeavor  to  ac- 
complish: "  You  give  them  the  grounding  and  theory;  ice 
can  give  them  practice."     So  far,  then,  as  the  profession 


102  Humanistic  Studies 

in  itself  is  concerned,  there  is  at  the  present  day  a  demand 
for  educated  men. 

The  modern  engineer  occupies,  in  many  respects,  a 
unique  position.  In  practically  all  enterprises  affecting 
the  public  at  large  either  the  responsibility  is  thrown 
directly  upon  the  engineer,  or  at  least  his  aid  is  required 
partially;  in  fact,  he  is  responsible  for  nearly  all  those 
operations  which  involve  the  outlay  of  large  sums  of 
money.  As  compared  with  his  professional  brethren  in 
law,  medicine,  or  divinity,  he  may  be  said  to  be  in  a  posi- 
tion of  trust  to  the  community  at  large  rather  than  to  the 
individual. 

He  is,  therefore,  brought  into  contact  with  all  sorts  and 
conditions  of  society,  and  must  meet  men  of  all  professions 
or  trades,  not  necessarily  in  a  business  way  only,  but  also 
privately  or  socially.  If  statistics  could  be  obtained  from 
prominent  engineers  of  today,  I  have  no  doubt  it  would 
be  discovered  that  the  impulse  which  gave  them  their 
early  start  was  due  as  much  to  the  help  of  some  influen- 
tial friend  as  to  their  own  native  ability.  The  faculty 
of  being  able  to  "get  on"  with  everybody  (to  use  an 
everyday  expression)  means  more  to  the  engineer  than 
many  realize. 

These  considerations,  apart  from  proficiency  in  his  pro- 
fession, which,  as  was  seen  above,  demands  an  educated 
man,  tend  to  emphasize  the  fact  that  he  should  also  be  a 
cultured  man;  that  is  to  say,  a  man  with  some  interests 
outside  his  own  profession,  or  at  any  rate,  one  with  suffi- 
cient training  in  what  may  be  called  the  culture  studies 
to  appreciate  what  is  being  done  in  professions  other 
than  his  own. 

The  above  discussion  of  the  position  of  the  engineer 
in  the  world  of  today,  although  necessarily  fragmentary, 


Engineering  '     103 

will  perhaps  be  of  assistance  in  appreciating  the  arguments 
which  will  follow. 

There  are  certain  preparatory  subjects  which  may  be 
regarded  as  common  to  all  professions,  but  their  relative 
importance  may  be  greater  in  some  than  in  others. 
The  study  of  a  so-called  culture  subject  may  be  useful 
in  fulfilling  two  objects:  first,  for  the  knowledge  of  the 
subject  per  se,  or  as  an  introduction  or  basis  to  others; 
and,  secondly,  as  a  general  training  for  the  mind. 

So  far  as  the  profession  of  engineering  is  concerned, 
at  least  under  the  existing  conditions,  the  second  may  be 
said  to  have  the  greater  weight ;  although  the  importance 
of  the  first  cannot  be  overlooked. 

While  not  an  exact  science,  the  study  of  engineering 
demands  definiteness  and  conciseness  of  thought,  and 
one  of  the  chief  difficulties  that  those  connected  with  the 
education  of  engineers  have  to  overcome  is  a  tendency 
to  generalization  on  the  part  of  the  student. 

An  analytic,  in  preference  to  a  philosophic  mind,  is  the 
type  that  should  be  cultivated.  In  order  to  be  success- 
ful, the  student  should  have  formed  the  habit  of  co- 
ordination and  exactness  in  his  earlier  years  of  study. 

While  it  may  be  the  opinion  of  many  that  the  intro- 
duction of  some  elementary  form  of  science  may  accom- 
pUsh  this  result,  I  venture  to  suggest  that,  as  a  general 
rule,  studies  of  this  nature  will  have  an  effect  diametrically 
opposite,  and  lead  toward  vagueness  rather  than  con- 
creteness.  What,  for  example,  can  be  done  in  a  subject 
such  as  physiology,  when  it  is  taught,  not  for  the  science 
itself,  but  under  the  influence,  and  as  a  means  of  propa- 
gation, of  certain  ideas  of  a  serious  but  somewhat  mis- 
guided body  of  women  ?  The  time  so  spent  would  be  far 
more  beneficial,  both  for  a  general  training  of  the  mind 


104  Humanistic  Studies 

as  well  as  for  forming  a  basis  to  further  studies,  if  devoted 
to  the  humanities. 

As  a  means  of  inculcating  ideas  of  exactness  the  study 
of  Greek  and  Latin  is  facile  princeps.  The  niceties  of 
translation,  the  importance  of  gender,  number,  and  case, 
the  proper  use  of  the  moods  and  tenses,  and  the  demands 
of  the  relative  clause,  compel  the  mind  toward  a  certain 
definiteness  which  is  lacking  in  many  of  the  subjects  taught 
in  the  early  stages  of  education.  The  most  simple  trans- 
lation, or  even  the  study  of  the  grammar  of  these  subjects, 
demands  a  directness  of  attention  and  a  consideration  of 
detail  which  cannot  be  otherwise  than  beneficial  to  a 
student  whose  work  in  the  future  will  lead  him  into 
subjects  where  generalization  is  impossible. 

As  a  direct  preparation  for  many  studies  now  required 
in  the  engineering  curriculum,  the  humanities  also  play 
an  important  part.  In  the  majority  of  engineering  schools 
of  the  present  day  the  first  two  years  are  devoted  mainly 
to  non-technical  subjects,  such  as  preliminary  mathe- 
matics, English,  and  modern  languages.  The  benefit 
of  the  study  of  humanities  as  a  preparation  for  modern 
languages  is  too  well  known  to  need  discussion  at  this 
time.  A  word,  however,  may  be  said  regarding  the  study 
of  English.  Few  perhaps  realize  the  amount  of  writing 
that  an  engineer  has  to  do,  especially  if  his  work  is  of  a 
consulting  character.  He  is  required  to  report  upon 
numerous  schemes;  he  is  often  asked  to  give  his  opinions 
relative  to  the  probable  success  or  failure  of  certain  under- 
takings; and  in  many  cases  his  evidence  in  law  courts 
is  the  ruling  factor  of  the  decision.  These,  together  with 
the  preparation  of  specifications  and  contracts,  demand  a 
familiarity  with  the  English  language  which,  it  must  be 
confessed,  is  often  lacking. 


Engineering  105 

While  the  cultivation  of  an  elegant  and  literary  style 
is  neither  demanded  nor  desired,  it  is  necessary  that  the 
engineer  should  be  able  to  express  his  ideas  concisely, 
and  with  at  least  a  certain  amount  of  regard  for  the 
common  usages  of  decent  English. 

It  is  an  everyday  experience  that  the  origin  of  most 
lawsuits  in  engineering,  especially  in  cases  of  interpreta- 
tion of  a  specification  or  in  patent  suits,  may  be  traceable 
directly  to  some  idea  loosely  or  inadequately  expressed. 
The  English  speech,  which  one  of  our  modern  writers  has 
aptly  characterized  as  "the  sea  that  receives  tributaries 
from  every  region  under  heaven,"  requires  a  background 
of  training  in  the  humanities,  at  least  for  a  full  apprecia- 
tion of  sentence  structure,  if  not  for  the  benefit  derived 
from  the  study  of  the  grammar  of  these  subjects. 

It  may  be  pertinent  here  to  call  attention  to  the 
arfiount  of  time  spent  upon,  and  the  methods  of  teaching, 
English  grammar  in  most  of  our  public  schools.  The 
idiosyncrasies  of  the  preposition  and  the  conjunction, 
the  use  of  the  comma  and  semicolon,  and  many  other 
details  throughout  the  whole  domain  of  English,  are 
learned  by  rote;  and  the  ease  with  which  some  children 
can  reel  off  pages  of  rules,  without  the  slighest  idea  of 
their  meaning  or  application,  is  at  once  a  source  of  wonder 
and  of  pity. 

I  venture  to  suggest  that,  if  half  the  time  at  present 
devoted  to  this  kind  of  study  of  Enghsh  were  spent  upon 
Latin,  the  net  result  from  both  an  educational  and  a 
mind-training  point  of  view  could  not  be  otherwise  than 
beneficial. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  most  children  begin  the  study 
of  languages  far  too  late  in  their  curriculum,  and  there  is 
no  rea.son  why  Latin,  and  perhaps  French,  should  not 


106  Humanistic  Studies 

be  begun  in  the  grade  schools.  So  much  of  the  earlier 
part  of  a  language  must  necessarily  be  learned  by  rote 
that  it  seems  hard  to  realize  why  these  studies  have  not 
been  introduced  in  preference  to  some  of  the  somewhat 
useless  and  inadequate  frills  so  often  found  in  many  of 
our  schools.  Both  in  England  and  in  Germany,  Latin  and 
French  are  begun  at  a  much  earlier  time  than  here — 
generally  between  the  ages  of  eight  and  ten;  and,  what 
may  seem  peculiar,  no  other  studies  are  neglected  to  make 
way  for  these. 

Although  the  above  discussion  may  be  considered  as 
somewhat  beyond  the  scope  of  the  present  paper,  yet, 
when  the  previous  arguments  are  taken  into  account, 
I  trust  I  may  be  permitted  this  digression. 

In  connection  with  the  study  of  humanities  as  a  prep- 
aration for  an  engineering  education,  the  question  as  to 
the  length  of  time  that  should  be  devoted  to  these  will 
naturally  arise.  The  work  at  present  required  of  engineer- 
ing students,  in  the  general  four-year  course,  leaves 
practically  no  time  for  elective  studies;  and  even  if  time 
were  available,  it  is  an  open  question  whether  this  should 
be  devoted  to  the  further  study  of  humanities  or  not, 
especially  as  in  any  case  it  would  not  amount  to  a  suffi- 
cient number  of  college  hours  to  prove  beneficial.  In 
the  years  immediately  preceding  the  university — that 
is  to  say,  throughout  the  high-school  course — the  study 
of  the  classics  is  certainly  most  desirable.  At  present 
the  engineering  department  of  this  university  accepts 
only  two  years  of  Latin  for  entrance  requirements;  but 
in  all  probability  these  conditions  will  be  revised  in  the 
future.^ 

>  Since  the  reading  of  this  paper,  the  Engineenng  Department  of  the 
University  of  Michigan  has  decided  to  accept  two,  three,  or  four  years  of 
Latin.    Greek  is  also  accepted  for  entrance. 


Engineering  107 

If  the  languages  could  be  begun  in  the  grade  schools, 
then  perhaps  three  years  of  classics  in  the  high  schools 
would  prove  sufficient  for  most  cases.  The  last  year 
could  then  be  devoted  to  those  subjects — such  as  chem- 
istry, physics,  and  modern  languages — which  would 
cover  the  other  entrance  requirements.  After  all,  the 
object  of  a  university  entrance  examination  is  simply  to 
show  that  the  student  has  a  moderately  well-trained 
mind;  and  I  venture  to  suggest  that  one  who  has  devoted 
his  time  to  the  study  of  the  humanities  will  be  in  as  good 
a  condition  to  absorb  the  university  work  as  one  who  has 
spent  his  time  in  getting  a  smattering  of  a  number  of 
subjects,  some  of  which  are  practically  useless. 

It  may  be  interesting  to  notice  that,  on  the  average 
over  the  past  three  years,  49  per  cent  of  the  total  number 
of  entrance  languages  presented  by  candidates  for  admis- 
sion to  our  engineering  department  were  Latin,  about 
37  per  cent  German,  and  11  per  cent  French,  and  the 
remainder  a  small  fraction  of  Greek,  Spanish,  or  no 
languages  at  all.  Of  these  it  is  a  little  difficult  to  say, 
without  looking  up  a  mass  of  certificates,  how  many  stu- 
dents had  more  than  two  years  of  Latin;  but  the  pre- 
sumption is  that  the  majority  did  not  have  more  than  this 
amount.  While  two  years  of  a  language  such  as  Latin  is 
certainly  better  than  none  at  all,  it  is  doubtful  if  a  student 
has  any  particular  grasp  of  the  subject  in  so  short  a  time. 

The  difficulties  attendant  upon  the  somewhat  crowded 
conditions  of  work  in  the  regular  four-year  course,  as 
well  as  the  demand  for  men  with  a  somewhat  broader 
education,  have  led  the  engineering  faculty  of  this  insti- 
tution to  consider  the  advisability  of  arranging  a  six- 
year  combined  literary  and  engineering  course.^ 

•  A  six-year  course  is  now  offered  in  the  Engineering  Department. 


108  Humanistic  Studies 

As,  however,  the  technical  work  has  been  revised 
and  rearranged  during  the  past  year — and  this  in  itself 
has  entailed  a  considerable  amount  of  change — the  com- 
mittee in  charge  of  the  proposed  course  deemed  it  wise 
to  see  how  this  new  scheme  worked  before  reporting 
upon  any  further  possibilities  of  extension.  In  a  general 
way  it  may  be  said  that  the  work  in  the  literary  depart- 
ment will  be  chosen  so  as  to  give  the  student  a  good  gen- 
eral course — with  perhaps  a  few  electives,  but  not  many. 
It  is  the  desire  of  the  department  to  give  the  student 
a  broader  education,  especially  on  the  culture  side. 

With  this  in  view,  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  point  out 
the  advisability  of  the  study  of  the  classics  in  the  high- 
school  grades.  Even  with  a  six-year  course,  provided 
that  a  student  had  at  least  four  years  of  Latin  previously 
to  his  coming  to  the  university,  it  is  doubtful  if  there 
would  be  any  particular  advantage  in  the  continuance 
of  this  line  of  study  in  his  higher  education. 

While  the  writer  is  aware  that  many  points  in  connec- 
tion with  the  subject  of  this  paper  have  remained  uncon- 
sidered, or  dwelt  upon  somewhat  lightly,  it  was  thought 
best  to  give  a  general  survey  of  the  conditions  at  present 
obtaining  in  the  engineering  profession,  and  to  trust  that 
some  of  the  important  details  would  come  up  in  the 
discussion. 

In  conclusion,  it  may  be  said  that  it  should  be  the 
desire  and  aim  of  everyone  connected  with  the  education 
of  engineers  to  raise  the  standard  of  the  average  or  rank 
and  file  of  the  profession,  so  that  in  the  future  it  will  not 
be  a  source  of  wonder  and  surprise  when  an  engineer  is 
discovered  who  has  interests  outside  his  profession,  and 
who  can  appreciate  art  and  literature  for  themselves 
alone. 


Engineering  109 

II.     DISCUSSION    OF    PROFESSOR    SADLER'S    PAPER 

GEORGE  W.  PATTERSON,  Ph.D. 
Professor  of  Electrical  Engineering,  University  of  Michigan 

In  discussing  my  colleague's  paper  on  "The  Place  of 
the  Humanities  in  the  Training  of  Engineers"  I  wish  to 
raise  my  voice  in  favor  of  things  whose  bread-and-butter 
value  is  not  evident. 

Herbert  Spencer,'  in  his  essays  on  education,  writes 
at  length  on  "what  education  is  most  worth."     He  says: 

If  we  inquire  what  is  the  real  motive  for  giving  boys  a  classi- 
cal education,  we  find  it  to  be  simply  conformity  to  public 
opinion.  Men  dress  their  children's  minds  as  they  do  their 
bodies,  in  the  prevaihng  fashion.  As  the  Orinoco  Indian  puts 
on  his  paint  before  leaving  his  hut,  not  with  any  view  to  any 
direct  benefit,  but  because  he  would  be  ashamed  to  be  seen 
without  it;  so  a  boy's  drilling  in  Latin  and  Greek  is  insisted 
on,  not  because  of  their  intrinsic  value,  but  that  he  may  not  be 
disgraced  by  being  found  ignorant  of  them — that  he  may  have 
"the  education  of  a  gentleman" — the  badge  marking  a  certain 
social  position,  and  bringing  a  consequent  respect. 

While  in  general  men  of  science  will  agree  with  Spencer 
in  looking  upon  an  education  limited  to  so-called  human- 
istic studies  (meaning  thereby  polite  literature,  grammar, 
rhetoric,  and  poetry,  including  the  study  of  the  ancient 
classics)  as  a  very  narrow  and  bigoted  kind  of  education, 
yet  I  am  not  willing  to  stand  on  his  side  and  say  that 
science  is  the  exclusive  education  of  most  worth.  His 
wholesale  belittling  of  the  classics  makes  me  class  him 
also  among  the  bigots.  Is  not  a  position  intermediate 
between  the  extremes  the  sensible  place  for  parents  and 
teachers  to  stand  ? 

For  the  sake  of  definiteness  I  shall  consider  whether 
or  not  the  engineer  is  better  fitted  for  his  life-work  if  he 

'  Herbert  Spencer,  Education,  p.  7. 


no  Humanistic  Studies 

has  had  a  full  high-school  course  in  Latin  preparatory  to 
entering  the  study  of  engineering.  I  wish  ray  sons  to 
study  Greek  too,  but  I  shall  base  ray  thesis  on  the  study 
of  Latin. 

For  the  engineer,  then,  what  knowledge  is  of  most 
worth?  And  does  it  include  Latin?  Knowledge  is 
classified  by  the  thinking  man  into  (a)  value  for  itself 
alone,  (6)  value  for  foundation  for  other  knowledge, 
(c)  value  for  training  solely. 

Let  us  consider  Latin  under  these  three  heads,  taking 
them  in  their  inverse  order.  The  boy,  or  the  girl,  needs 
foundation  on  which  to  build  his  education  just  as  surely 
as  any  other  builder  needs  a  secure  foundation;  and,  in 
my  opinion,  the  value  of  a  subject  for  the  foundation 
training  of  a  boy's  mind  is  of  great  importance.  Now 
Latin,  with  its  structure  obeying  fairly  consistent  rules, 
is  able  to  furnish  the  mind  with  exercise  of  practical  value 
comparable  with  the  value  of  exercises  to  the  musician. 
The  study  of  Latin  grammar  gives  good  opportunity 
of  holding  the  pupil  to  good  consistent  work,  and  leaves 
little  room  for  vagueness. 

But  the  value  of  Latin  for  training  solely  would  not 
be  a  sufficient  excuse  for  its  use  in  the  education  of  the 
child;  for  the  same  argument  might  be  raade  with  refer- 
ence to  Sanskrit  or  Arabic.  So  let  us  turn  to  the  consid- 
eration of  Latin  under  the  second  heading — value  for 
foundation  for  other  knowledge.  Language  study,  even 
if  without  value  in  itself,  or  as  training  for  the  mind,  is 
yet  necessary  for  the  well-informed  engineer;  for  he 
should  be  able  to  keep  abreast  of  the  progress  of  his  pro- 
fession in  other  lands,  and  a  reasonable  knowledge  of 
French,  German,  and  perhaps  Italian  may  be  looked 
upon  as  necessary  tools  of  his  trade.     In  my  opinion, 


Engineering  111 

these  modern  languages  will  be  better  acquired  by  an 
engineering  student  who  has  had  a  good  Latin  training. 

We  have  already  established  the  right  of  Latin  to  be 
included  in  the  curriculum.  We  shall,  however,  not 
rest  with  a  simple  right  to  be  included — we  shall  go  on 
and  say  that  it  is  unwise  to  leave  the  student  any  option 
in  the  matter;  and  the  justification  for  this  stand  is  that 
Latin  is  not  only  of  value  for  training  and  for  foundation 
for  other  knowledge,  but  it  is  also  knowledge  of  value 
for  itself  alone;  in  other  words,  it  is  a  part  of  "knowledge 
of  most  worth."  This  will  be  seen  when  we  consider  that 
the  Latin  language  is  the  most  extensive  source  for  the 
words  of  our  own  language,  and  that  no  one  can  really 
know  English,  French,  or  Italian  who  is  a  stranger  to 
Latin.  The  engineer  is  not  a  man  apart  from  the  rest 
of  mankind.  To  be  a  success  as  an  engineer,  he  must  be 
a  man  among  men  who  are  largely  in  other  walks  of  life. 
He  must  be  able  to  write  clear,  concise,  accurate  reports 
to  his  clients  or  employers;  and  a  thorough  mastery  of 
English  is  a  tool  without  which  the  owner  cannot  afford 
to  be.  Let  our  engineer,  then,  be  a  man  of  all-around 
culture,  who,  though  a  modern  man  of  science,  does  not 
fail  to  appreciate  the  good  things  of  yesterday,  today, 
and,  I  believe,  tomorrow. 

But  many  say  that  there  is  not  time  for  four  years  of 
Latin  in  the  training  of  the  engineer.  I  believe  that 
there  is  not  only  room  for  four  years,  but  even  room  for 
six  years.  Why  do  we  tolerate  useless  studies?  Why 
do  we  compel  our  children  to  learn  obsolescent  tables  of 
weights  and  measures,  to  be  forgotten  tomorrow?  Why 
do  we  have  courses  in  physiology  whose  object  is  to  give 
children  perverted  notions  of  a  grand  science?  Why  do 
we  have  courses  in  patriotism — a  thing  which  every  boy 


112  Humanistic  Studies 

should  learn  at  home?  Why  do  we  waste  precious  time 
in  mastering  absurd  spelling?  Answer  these  questions 
by  saying  that  we  will  reform  our  ways,  and  then  the 
engineering  student  will  find  plenty  of  time  for  four,  or 
better  six,  years  of  Latin,  and  even  some  Greek  too,  and 
thus  not  neglect  a  part  of  knowledge  of  most  worth. 


III.    THE  DEMANDS  OF  MODERN  ENGINEERING 
IN  THEIR  BEARING  UPON  CHOICE  OF 
PRELIMINARY  STUDIES 

GARDNER  S.  WILLIAMS,  C.E. 

Professor  of  Civil,  Hydraulic,  and  Sanitary  Engineering,  University 

of  Michigan 

Engineering  as  a  profession  has  come  to  a  sudden 
popularity.  At  the  present  moment,  taking  it  in  all  its 
branches,  it  may  safely  be  called  the  most  popular  of 
the  professions;  and  it  also,  from  its  traditions,  is  looked 
upon  as  a  most  practical  profession.  It  was  developed 
essentially  as  such,  and  those  who  simply  look  at  it  from 
the  outside  so  regard  it.  That  was  its  original  charac- 
teristic, and  it  may  be  interesting  to  note  that  some  of  its 
early  exponents  felt  that  when  they  had  completed  their 
life,  they  had  done  all  the  engineering  it  was  necessary 
for  anyone  to  do. 

It  is  related  of  Thomas  Telford,  one  of  those  early 
civil  engineers  to  whom  Great  Britain  owes  so  many  of 
her  canals  and  roadways,  that  when  a  young  man  made 
application  for  the  privilege  of  studying  engineering  under 
him,  he  replied  by  asking  what  the  applicant  expected 
to  find  to  do  in  the  profession,  saying:  "I  have  built  all 
the  canals  and  all  the  roads  that  are  necessary,  and  I  do 
not  see  what  there  is  left  for  you  to  accomphsh."  That 
was  the  view  that  a  practicing  engineer  took  of  his  pro- 


Engineering  113 

fession  in  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century.  And 
even  now,  judging  from  its  history  and  traditions,  there 
is  no  profession  that  may  more  properly  say:  "Away 
with  the  culture  study!  Away  with  Greek  and  Latin! 
We  do  not  need  them."  And  there  is  no  profession  that 
has  said  it  more  frequently  than  has  the  profession  of 
engineering.  But  there  have  been  divers  reasons  for 
that.  It  was  not  wholly  the  engineer's  fault.  Our 
cultured  friends  must  take  a  little  of  the  blame  upon 
themselves.  They  chose  to  look  down  upon  the  engineer; 
and,  though  quite  justly,  nevertheless  the  engineer 
objected  to  being  looked  down  upon.  The  votaries  of 
classical  training  were  able  to  say  that  the  great  men  of 
history  had  been  men  of  classical  training.  They  could 
support  their  assertion  with  the  figures.  They  could 
say  that  of  the  men  who  had  risen  to  prominence  in  what- 
ever line  they  chose  to  select,  the  great  majority  were 
men  of  classical  training.  But  they  overlooked  the  fact 
that  a  man  in  those  days  who  had  any  training  at  all  had 
to  have  a  classical  training;  that  if  he  had  the  advantage 
of  any  education,  it  was  a  classical  one. 

The  past  fifty  years,  largely  as  the  result  of  engineering, 
have  developed  a  new  kind  of  education  in  which  the 
classics  have  been  left  out,  and  we  are  to  consider  whether 
on  the  whole  that  is  best.  First,  it  was  argued  that  the 
practical  side  had  no  place  in  university  training;  then, 
that  the  cultural  side  could  be  properly  omitted,  and  the 
demand  was  for  the  practical;  but  one  might  as  well  say 
that,  as  glass  is  good  for  windows,  he  will  build  his  house's 
walls  of  glass,  or,  because  wood  is  good  for  the  panels  of  a 
door,  that  he  will  make  the  window  panes  of  wood.  The 
sensible  position  is  an  intermediate  one.  The  two  things 
must   come   together,    each   in   its   proper   place.     But, 


114  Humanistic  Studies 

unfortunately,  with  the  antagonism  of  classics  toward 
engineering,  or  more  properly  toward  the  engineer,  as 
he  rose  in  the  world  he  had  ground  into  him  a  reflex 
antagonism  toward  the  classics  which  he  looked  upon  as 
his  chief  enemy. 

As  time  has  gone  on,  engineering  has  advanced  both 
in  influence  and  in  learning.  I  venture  to  say  that  ten 
years  ago  an  engineer  would  hardly  have  been  invited 
to  speak  upon  this  subject  before  such  a  gathering  as 
this ;  and  even  though  he  had  been,  he  hardly  would  have 
said  the  things  I  am  prepared  to  say. 

When  the  institution  of  Civil  Engineers  of  Great 
Britain  was  formed,  it  adopted  in  its  constitution  Thomas 
Tredgold's  famous  definition:  "Civil  engineering  is  the 
art  of  directing  the  great  sources  of  power  in  nature  to  the 
use  and  convenience  of  man";  but  at  the  present  time 
I  contend  that  Thomas  Tredgold's  definition  is  insuffi- 
cient. If  it  were  sufficient,  it  would  not  seem  to  be 
necessary  to  appear  here  as  an  advocate  of  classical  train- 
ing for  engineers.  I  maintain  that  engineering  ceased  a 
considerable  time  ago  to  be  an  art;  and  I  would  say: 
"Engineering  is  the  art  and  science  of  directing  the  great 
sources  of  power  in  nature  to  the  use  and  convenience  of 
man";  and  I  would  distinguish  between  an  art  and  a 
science,  in  that  science  is  classified  knowledge,  while  an 
art  is  merely  based  on  information;  the  scientist  knows 
why,  the  artist  knows  only  how.  The  engineer  must 
know  both.  He  must  not  only  know  the  rule,  but  the 
reason  for  the  rule,  the  underlying  conditions  which  have 
produced  that  rule.  So  the  engineer  of  today  is  reaching 
back  to  those  days  when  devotees  of  natural  science  were 
not  looked  upon  as  mere  practical  men;  when  they  were 
received  and  courted  by  the  most  cultured;  and  when  the 


Engineering  115 

literature  of  the  time,  the  most  popular  literature,  was 
made  up  of  their  work.  We  are  going  back  to  look  at 
the  productions  of  Descartes,  Newton,  Bernoulli,  D'Alem- 
bert,  Prony,  and  Bacon,  and  of  many  others  whose  names 
are  famous  on  the  pages  of  history,  and  whom  one  does 
not  ordinarily  think  of  as  belonging  to  the  engineers  in 
any  way. 

When  the  engineer  goes  beyond  the  merely  practical 
results,  to  the  arrangement  of  those  practical  results  with 
a  view  to  discovering  ^vithin  them  the  law  according  to 
which  their  causes  operated,  something  more  is  required 
than  the  mere  observation  of  everyday  occurrences  that 
one  is  taught  in  the  course  of  a  practical  training.  It 
requires  an  attention  to  detail  and  an  inquisitiveness 
that  are  seldom  observed  in  one  who  has  come  up  simply 
as  an  apprentice.  The  development  of  the  reasoning 
faculty  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  solely  practical.  The 
devotion  to  detail  is  the  thing  that  must  be  looked  to, 
to  the  fine  differences  and  the  fine  distinctions,  whether 
they  be  in  the  construction  of  a  sentence,  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  theory,  or  in  the  mending  of  a  road. 

The  engineer  is  now  called  upon  to  describe  his  work, 
to  lay  down  rules  for  its  furtherance,  and  when  he  lays 
down  his  propositions  they  must  be  so  laid  down  as  not 
to  be  misunderstood.  In  other  words,  the  engineer  must 
be  a  master  of  his  language.  How  can  he  become  so? 
He  must  acquire  a  large  vocabulary.  And  how  can  this 
best  be  done  ? 

There  are  those  who  urge  that  for  the  engineer  the 
sciences  offer  all  that  is  necessary,  and  that  the  time 
spent  upon  any  language  at  all  is  wasted.  The  next  step 
after  asserting  that  the  sciences  offer  all  that  is  needed, 
when  that  is  shown  to  be  untenable,  is  to  assert  that 


116  Humanistic  Studies 

modern  languages  supply  the  deficiency,  and  we  have 
the  error  of  that  idea  before  us  in  many  of  our  present 
students.  Anyone  who  has  studied  the  ancient  lan- 
guages feels  that  there  is  something  very  materially  lack- 
ing in  the  groundwork  of  the  modern  languages.  German 
and  French  seem  like  a  child's  production  as  compared 
with  the  structure  of  Latin.  Nor  can  one  properly  under- 
stand English  without  an  understanding  of  the  Latin 
grammar,  I  believe,  though  he  should  study  it  until  he 
were  gray.  There  are  features  of  language  which  the 
study  of  Enghsh  in  itself  does  not  bring  out,  and  which 
cannot  be  brought  out  until  one  goes  back  to  its  parent 
tongue;  and  it  is  in  these  distinctions  of  meaning  that 
the  engineer  must  ultimately  become  versed.  Often- 
times we  look  upon  the  study  of  language,  and  the  student 
particularly  looks  upon  it,  with  a  view  to  its  practical 
use.  He  says:  "I  can  study  German,  and  it  will  be  of 
some  use  to  me;  I  can  study  Latin,  but  what  good  is  that 
to  me?  Nobody  speaks  Latin."  That  is  the  very 
fortunate  thing  about  it!  Nobody  does  speak  it.  If 
you  study  Latin,  you  do  not  study  it  to  speak  it.  If  you 
wish  to  learn  to  speak  German,  go  and  live  with  a  German 
family;  do  not  waste  your  time  in  a  classroom.  It  is 
not  the  purpose  of  the  study  to  learn  how  to  speak  the 
language;  the  purpose  is  to  understand  its  structure,  and 
thereby  understand  the  structure  of  our  own  language, 
and  incidentally  to  acquire  facility  of  expression. 

There  is  nothing  in  which  engineers  today  are  so  lack- 
ing as  in  the  ability  to  express  their  thoughts;  and  there 
is  nothing  that  will  so  surely  give  one  such  an  ability  as 
the  translation  from  a  foreign  tongue;  and  the  more  deli- 
cate is  the  distinction  of  meaning  in  different  foreign 
constructions,  the  better  it  is  for  the  student. 


Engineering  117 

There  is  one  more  point  bearing  on  the  question  as  to 
whether  the  training  in  the  high  school  shall  be  in  Latin 
or  in  a  modern  language.  Latin,  if  it  is  taught  at  all,  is 
taught  well;  and  I  may  say  that  it  is  very  rarely  that  the 
modern  languages  are.  A  thing  well  done,  one  thing  well 
done,  is  worth  any  number  superficially  done. 

We  find  today  that  the  students  who  are  entering 
college  do  not  seem  to  be  capable,  on  the  average,  of  such 
a  high  grade  of  work  as  those  who  entered  a  few  years 
ago.  There  seems  to  be  a  deterioration  of  the  quality  of 
mind,  in  its  adaptabiUty  or  its  training.  It  has  been 
said  that  the  students  who  enter  college  today  expect 
knowledge  to  be  pumped  into  them  or  fed  to  them  with  a 
spoon.  They  look  upon  college  as  a  kindergarten  where 
they  are  to  take  their  ease,  and  have  information  admin- 
istered in  sugar-coated  preparations.  They  think  that 
they  can  understand  a  thing  when  it  is  demonstrated 
before  them,  and  they  think  that  they  have  acquired  it 
when  they  merely  see  it,  though  they  could  not  reproduce 
it  to  save  their  souls.  The  result  would  be  the  same  in 
translating,  if  one  should  read  through  a  book  catching 
here  and  there  a  word  that  he  knew,  and  passing  the 
others  by.  He  would  not  get  far  in  an  understanding  of 
his  translation.  The  student  must  cover  his  whole  sub- 
ject; he  must  see  what  every  word  means;  he  must 
know  the  nice  distinctions;  and  by  the  time  he  has  accom- 
plished that  he  has  absorbed  his  subject,  and  when  he 
has  had  four  years  of  this  training  in  language,  he  will  be 
able  to  treat  his  mathematics  in  the  same  spirit. 

Coming  to  the  use  of  ancient  languages  in  the  under- 
standing of  words,  it  is  not  necessary  to  go  so  far  as  terms 
like  "  pseudomorph "  or  "toxicogenic,"  and  those  which 
are  made  up  of  two  or  three  ancient  roots.     Take  such 


118  Humanistic  Studies 

simple  words  as  "affect"  and  "effect."  I  venture  to  say 
that  95  per  cent  of  the  students  of  the  senior  class  of  this 
university  who  have  not  had  a  classical  training  will  fail 
to  distinguish  the  difference  between  those  two  verbs; 
and  yet  the  difference  is  quite  essential,  and  it  is  especially 
essential  to  the  engineer. 

The  information  that  a  student  absorbs  during  the 
early  days  of  his  life,  after  all  is  said  and  done,  is  not  such 
a  very  important  thing.  A  great  deal  of  it  will  very 
likely  cease  to  be  accepted  as  correct  information  before 
he  has  gotten  through  college,  particularly  if  it  is  along 
many  of  the  scientific  lines.  We  should,  therefore,  even 
in  the  high  school,  look  more  to  developing  and  directing 
the  student's  mind,  than  to  filling  it  with  miscellaneous 
bits  of  information  here  and  there. 

If  I  were  to  say  what  would  best  comprise  the  prepa- 
ration of  the  student  for  the  engineering  course,  at  this 
time;  if  I  were  to  lay  out  four  years'  work,  it  would  be 
something  along  this  line,  assuming  that  the  student 
carries  four  major  subjects  each  year. 

I  should  put  first  for  the  first  year:  English  grammar, 
composition,  and  spelling — do  not  forget  the  spelling. 
I  think  I  would  put  next  arithmetic,  because  the  student 
should  get  through  arithmetic  in  the  earlier  part  of  his 
course.  He  should  be  thoroughly  trained  in  it  in  the 
grammar  school,  because,  although  arithmetic  is  a  true 
science,  a  great  many  things  in  it  must  be  actually  learned, 
must  be  impressed  upon  the  student's  memory.  He  will 
not  have  time  in  afterlife  for  counting  up  to  discover  that 
two  and  two  make  four,  or  figuring  out  the  multiplica- 
tion tablers.  He  must  know  them.  I  would  put  next 
in  the  first  year  Latin,  and  then  I  would  put  history. 

Going  to  the  second  year,  I  would  put  Latin  first,  I 


Engineering  119 

would  put  algebra  second,  and  I  think  I  would  introduce 
physics,  elementary  physics,  because  then  it  is  time  that 
the  pupil  should  begin  to  appreciate  some  of  the  laws  of 
nature.  I  should  prefer  history  to  make  up  the  last 
study,  but  out  of  deference  to  some  of  my  scientific 
friends  I  would  submit  to  biology. 

Third  year:  Latin  first,  algebra  second,  English  com- 
position and  rhetoric  third;  then  another  language,  either 
German  or  Greek — it  would  not  be  French.  Not  that 
I  have  anything  against  French,  but  if  one  has  a  thorough 
foundation  in  Latin,  French  comes  too  easily  to  warrant 
any  time  in  its  acquisition  in  the  high  school. 

For  the  fourth  year  I  would  put  Latin  first,  geometry 
second;  then  I  would  put  English  literature,  the  reading 
and  the  speaking  of  the  masters  of  English — and  I  con- 
sider this  a  very  important  one  of  the  branches:  the 
understanding  of  a  great  language,  the  formation  of  an 
accurate  vocabulary,  the  development  of  a  taste  for 
something  besides  the  vernacular.  What  we  need  today 
is  less  of  the  dialect  and  more  of  the  pure  English.  It 
would  be  better  for  our  language  if  those  who  are  seek- 
ing to  perpetuate  the  dialect  of  the  plains  and  of  the 
"poor  white  trash"  of  the  South  would  cease  their  efforts, 
and  let  us  get  back  to  the  language  of  Thackeray  and 
Scott.  Then  as  a  fourth  branch  I  would  put  in  either 
German  or  Greek. 

In  closing,  it  may  be  well  to  state  what  inclines  me  so 
strongly  to  Latin.  My  father  did  not  have  an  oppor- 
tunity to  study  it,  but  he  thought  that  it  was  wise  that 
his  son  should,  and  a  portion  of  my  time  in  the  high  school 
was  devoted  to  that  subject.  With  a  retrospect  of 
twenty  years,  it  seems  to  me  I  am  warranted  in  saying 
that  I  could  have  better  spared  any  other  course  that  I 


120  Humanistic  Studies 

took  in  high  school  than  the  Latin.  If  something  must 
have  gone,  if  I  could  have  taken  but  three-fourths  of  the 
subjects  that  I  took,  the  Latin  would  be  first  and  fore- 
most, the  one  thing  that  would  not  have  been  left  out. 


IV.    A  CURRENT  VIEW  OF  COLLEGIATE  EDUCATION 
FORMULATED  IN  PROPOSITIONS 

JOSEPH  B.  DAVIS 

Associate  Dean  of  the  Department  of  Engineering,  University  of 
Michigan 

1.  Languages  are  not  "practical." 

2.  A  college  education  has  no  especial  significance. 
It  is  a  fashion  to  go  to  college,  so  children  are  sent. 

3.  College  should  prepare  people  for  obtaining  money. 

4.  There  must  be  a-  shorter  way  of  getting  into  college 
than  through  the  preparatory  schools. 

5.  Enrolment  in  a  college  adds  an  indefinable,  but 
vast,  accretion  to  one's  learning  and  wisdom. 

6.  Preferences  not  justly  earned,  are  expected — 
"graft." 

7.  High-school  graduates  are  prepared  to  begin  the 
study  of  a  profession. 

8.  Anyone  can  plan  a  college  course,  a  course  that  will 
be  ever  so  much  better  and  more  "practical"  than  the  one 
planned  by  those  who  have  spent  their  lives  at  such  work. 
Children  are  especially  sure  they  can  do  this,  and  are  not 
only  permitted,  but  encouraged,  to  do  it. 


SYMPOSIUM  III 

THE     VALUE     OF     HUMANISTIC,     PARTICULARLY     CLASSICAL, 

STUDIES   AS    A    PREPARATION    FOR    THE    STUDY 

OF    LAW 

I.     THE  VALUE  TO  THE  LAWYER  OF  TRAINING 

IN  THE  CLASSICS 

MERRITT  STARR 
Of  the  Chicago  Bar 

In  most  of  the  summaries  of  the  faculties  and  quaUties 
employed  by  the  lawyer,  a  prominent  place  is  given  to  the 
primary  faculty  of  '^common  sense."  This  means  "the 
correct  sense  of  common  things" — that  is,  sound  judg- 
ment in  affairs,  or  sound  judgment.  The  significance  of 
this  and  its  bearing  upon  our  subject  are  found  in  the 
emphasis  laid  upon  "judgment"  as  the  lawyer's  chief 
requisite. 

Starting  with  native  endowments  of  intelligence  and 
common  sense,  in  what  should  the  lawyer  seek  training 
by  his  preliminary  education;  and  what  studies  -will  most 
aid  him  to  such  training?  The  answer  is  self-evident — 
training  in  judgment,  and  training  in  affairs.  Conceding 
at  once  that  training  in  the  classics  does  not  give  train- 
ing in  affairs,  it  is  sufficient  for  our  purpose  to  maintain 
that  training  in  the  classics  does  give  training  in  judgment. 
And  here  is  the  crux  of  the  whole  matter.  The  advocates 
of  training  in  affairs  have  deemed  the  case  settled  by  the 
admission  that  such  training  is  necessary,  and  that  it  is 
not  afforded  by  the  classics.  No  question  is  made  or 
admitted  of  the  proposition  that  the  lawyer  needs  train- 


122  Humanistic  Studies 

ing  in  affairs,  and  that  he  cannot  get  that  training  from 
the  classics.     That  must  be  obtained  in  some  other  way. 

But  it  is  maintained  for  the  classics  (1)  that  they  do, 
in  a  superior  degree,  give  training  in  judgment;  and  (2) 
that  training  in  affairs  is  in  a  way  inevitable,  while  train- 
ing in  judgment  is  not;  and  that  therefore  the  training 
which  needs  the  solicitude  of  the  teacher,  the  pupil,  and 
the  public  is  training  in  judgment. 

The  contentious  work  of  the  lawyer  consists  largely  of 
such  as  the  following: 

1.  The  ascertaimnent  of  facts  and  proofs  of  facts. 

2.  The  ascertainment  of  the  law  and  of  the  authoritative 
statement  of  the  law. 

3.  The  interpretation  of  the  law,  to  develop  its  relation  and 
application  to  the  facts. 

4.  Expressional  work,  viz.,  The  work  of  convincing  the 
tribunal,  and  persuading  it  to  adopt  his  view. 

5.  The  record-making  work,  which  secures  the  correct  and 
permanent  recording  and  carrying  into  effect  of  the  result 
attained. 

Each  of  these  has  its  counterpart  operation;  thus: 

la.  Ascertainment  of  want  of  facts,  or  facts  of  disproof  of 
the  opponent's  contention. 

2a.  Ascertainment  of  dominant  or  distinguishing  rules  of 
law  eliminating  the  rules  reUed  on  by  the  opponent. 

3a.  Interpretation  of  the  facts  and  rules  relied  on  by  the 
opponent,  in  order  to  develop  their  want  of  relation  and  appU- 
cation  to  each  other  and  defeat  the  conclusion  contended  for 
by  the  opponent. 

4a.  Expressional  work  in  inducing  the  tribunal  to  reject 
the  course  sought  by  the  opponent. 

5a.  The  record-making  work  of  the  defeated  lawyer,  viz., 
the  securing  of  a  record  disclosing  the  errors  of  the  court  upon 
which  an  appeal  may  be  based  and  a  reversal  secured. 


Law  123 

The  advisory  work  of  the  lawyer  involves  all  these 
steps,  and  requires  something  more,  viz.,  the  carrying-on 
of  all  these  operations  in  advance  of  the  event,  in  order  to 
guide  the  client  and  so  direct  his  conduct  that,  when  the 
event  occurs,  it  shall  inure  to  the  client's  welfare.  It 
involves  the  carrying-on  of  the  entire  transaction,  includ- 
ing the  lawsuit  itself,  in  thought  and  imagination,  the 
ascertainment  of  the  probable  result,  and  the  direction 
of  the  client's  steps  to  avoid  dangers  and  secure  the 
benefits  involved.  And  this  advisory  work  constitutes 
by  far  the  greater  portion  of  the  lawyer's  task.  What 
faculties  are  most  employed  in  it  ?     The  answer  is  plain : 

In  (1),  the  ascertainment  of  facts,  the  faculty  most 
employed  is  that  of  judgment,  the  faculty  which  measures, 
weighs,  compares,  contrasts,  and  balances  (a)  the  conflict- 
ing statements  of  witnesses;  (6)  the  conflicting  phases  of 
a  complicated  state  of  facts;  (c)  the  conflicting  motives, 
interests,  prejudices,  and  tendencies  of  the  parties  and  the 
witnesses. 

In  (2),  the  ascertainment  of  law,  the  faculty  most 
employed  is  that  of  judgment,  which  measures,  weighs, 
compares,  and  balances  the  seemingly  conflicting  state- 
ments of  the  law  from  different  precedents,  statutes,  and 
principles;  that  determines  which  precedent,  which 
statute,  which  principle  dominates  the  matter  in  hand, 
takes  it  out  from  under  the  operation  of  some  other,  and 
so  controls  the  result. 

In  (3),  interpretation,  the  faculty  most  employed  is 
that  of  judgment  which  measures,  weighs,  compares,  and 
balances  the  evidences  and  reasons  for  conflicting  inter- 
pretations, and  selects  the  one  which  should  prevail. 

But  here  another  set  of  faculties  bears  an  important 
part  in  the  lawyer's  work,  viz.,  the  faculties  which  dis- 


124  Humanistic  Studies 

cover  and  develop  the  diverse  meanings  of  a  rule,  viz., 
the  dialectic  faculties.  Those  are  the  faculties  of  critical 
examination  or  analysis,  of  logic,  of  "invention"  (i.e., 
''discovery"  of  meanings  and  expression),  of  discussion; 
and  with  the  operation  of  each  of  these  the  use  of  the 
faculty  of  judgment  is  interwoven. 

In  (4),  the  expressional  work,  the  dialectic  and  the 
rhetorical  faculties  are  all  brought  into  play.  The  latter 
include  the  entire  range  of  the  language  faculties — those 
of  composition,  systematic  arrangement,  style,  memory, 
and  active  expression.  In  the  employment  and  control 
of  these  language  faculties,  the  faculties  of  judgment  are 
continually  called  into  action. 

In  (5),  the  record-making  work,  the  language  faculties 
play  a  leading  part,  in  selecting  and  forming  the  terms  of 
the  judgment  or  decree,  and  the  permanent  portions  of 
the  record  on  which  it  is  based. 

It  appears,  then,  that  the  faculties  of  judgment  and  the 
linguistic  faculties  are  pre-eminent  in  the  work  of  the 
lawyer,  and  should  be  developed  by  special  education. 
What  study  will  best  train  his  faculties  of  judgment  and 
of  language?  I  believe  that,  next  after  a  thorough 
training  in  the  use  of  the  mother-tongue,  the  study  of  the 
classics  will  best  accomplish  this  result. 

In  the  presence  of  a  company  of  teachers  it  is  not 
necessary  to  dwell  upon  the  details  by  which  this  is 
demonstrated. 

In  translating  a  long  sentence  from  Greek  or  Latin, 
the  student  has  to  do  with,  say,  100  words.  Each  of  the 
fifty  more  important  of  these  words  has  from  five  to 
fifteen  meanings  in  English.  The  student  must  measure, 
weigh,  compare,  contrast,  and  balance  these  different 
meanings  to  insure  that  he  has  found  (1)  the  real  meaning 


Law  125 

of  the  original;  (2)  the  best  EngHsh  equivalent  for  it; 
(3)  the  best  English  expression  of  it.  He  will  find, that 
the  connectives,  particles,  and  seemingly  less  important 
words  are  themselves  signs  by  which  he  will  be  guided 
to  the  proper  interpretation  of  the  more  important  words, 
and  aided  in  the  selection  of  English  equivalents.  Like 
the  discards  in  whist,  these  smaller  members  become 
most  important  indications  of  the  interpretation  of  those 
to  come.  He  will  find  that  several  of  the  words  are  in 
forms  common  to  several  distinct  cases,  as  datives  and 
ablatives,  or  to  several  different  forms  of  thought  as,  for 
example,  the  several  different  uses  of  the  subjunctive;  and, 
finally,  that  the  whole  sentence  may  be  treated  as  belong- 
ing to  one  or  another  of  several  different  rhetorical  forms. 
And  he  must  measure  and  weigh  and  compare  and  con- 
trast and  balance  at  each  stage  of  his  work,  to  be  sure 
that  he  is  going  right,  and  selecting  the  correct  case  and 
form. 

Oh,  what  trials  to  the  quick  and  accurate  mathematical 
boy,  who  can  compute  algebraic  squares  mentally,  and 
solve  equations  by  inspection;  to  the  observing  scientific 
boy,  who  can  classify  the  game  birds  of  his  locality  at  a 
glance!  Here  he  must  do  something  more.  He  must 
exercise  his  judgment.  And  that  undeveloped  faculty 
awakens  and  grows  by  exercise,  and  gradually  acquires 
something  of  readiness  and  skill  like  unto  the  boy's 
skill  with  equations  and  game  birds. 

And  the  classics  are  the  means  of  this  acquisition. 

This  discussion  is  not  intended  to  prescribe  for  the 
exceptional  genius,  for  the  Abraham  Lincoln  or  John  G. 
Johnson,  who  will  rise  with  any  education,  or  with  no 
education,  or  with  self-education.  And  the  question  is 
not  whether  the  youth  who  hopes  to  be  a  lawyer  shall  be 


126  Humanistic  Studies 

educated,  not  whether  he  shall  be  educated  in  the  law, 
but  ivhat  studies  he  shall  pursue  before  taking  up  the  law. 
Comparing  the  classics  with  (a)  mathematics,  (6)  the 
modern  languages,  (c)  the  natural  sciences,  {d)  the  applied 
sciences,  (e)  historical  studies,  (/)  philosophical  studies, 
I  hold  that  the  study  of  the  classics  yields  superior  train- 
ing in  the  faculties  of  judgment  and  of  language,  and  that 
these  are  what  he  most  needs. 

We  could  easily  take  up  the  comparison  of  the  classi- 
cal studies  with  those  in  each  of  the  other  groups  of 
studies  above  noted,  and  find  that,  while  each  of  the 
other  groups  has  some  point  of  excellence  in  which  it 
surpasses  all  others,  yet,  in  the  discipline  of  the  faculties 
which  measure,  and  weigh  and  compare,  and  contrast  and 
balance  the  different  elements,  and  exercise  selection  and 
make  decision  among  them,  the  study  of  the  classics  sur- 
passes them  all. 

(a)  In  mathematics,  broadly  speaking,  each  problem 
admits  of  but  one  answer,  obtained  in  one  way.  The 
faculties  of  precise  definition  and  accurate  operation 
and  statement  are  greatly  discipHned,  but  the  faculties 
of  judgment,  less  so. 

(6)  In  the  modern  languages  (1)  there  is  a  royal  road 
to  each  one  of  them,  viz.,  taking  a  vacation  in  its  mother- 
land; and  (2)  the  modern  forms  of  speech  are  corrupted 
in  use  and  aided  by  object-lessons  to  such  an  extent  as 
distinctly  to  lessen  their  value  as  discipline  for  the  judg- 
ment. 

(c,  d)  The  natural  and  applied  sciences  pre-eminently 
discipline  the  powers  of  observation. 

(e,/)  The  historical  and  philosophical  studies  (after 
their  initial  stages,  as  information  studies)  are  higher 
forms  of  cultivation  of  the  judgment.     They  need  a  pre- 


Law  127 

liminary  training  of  the  judgment  to  build  on,  just  as  do 
the  study  and  practice  of  the  law.  If  we  consider  the 
training  of  the  linguistic  and  dialectic  faculties,  we  shall 
find  that  (after  a  thorough  training  in  the  use  of  the 
mother-tongue)  the  classics  come  first  and  the  philo- 
sophical studies  next.  The  lawyer  then  should  study  the 
classics  and  the  philosophical  studies. 

It  should  be  realized  that  the  chief  business  of  the 
lawyer  has  become  that  of  business  adviser;  that  the 
writing  and  interpreting  of  contracts,  charters,  ordinances, 
statutes,  wills,  by-laws,  and  business  regulations,  and 
advising  AAdth  reference  thereto,  constitute  his  chief  occu- 
pation. In  all  this  he  is  constantly  required  to  distin- 
guish closely  between  the  thought  and  the  words  in  which 
the  thought  is  expressed.  Merely  to  illustrate,  in  these 
instruments,  such  forms  of  thought  as  express  alternative 
future  possibilities  are  in  constant  use.  In  the  discussion 
of  adverse  interests  and  claims  the  ''supposition  contrary 
to  fact"  is  continually  involved.  Other  things  being 
equal,  the  mind  trained  by  the  rules  and  exceptions  of 
classic  syntax  and  their  noble  examples  in  classic  litera- 
ture has  a  familiarity  with  the  forms  of  thought,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  words  in  which  they  are  expressed, 
which  nowhere  else,  as  I  believe,  can  be  acquired  so  well. 

The  objection  that  the  classics  are  uninteresting,  hard, 
and  dry,  is  put  forth  by  the  boy  himself.  And  from 
every  point  of  view  we  give  this  objection  too  much  impor- 
tance. But  to  the  active  practicing  lawyer  I  beg  to  say 
that  this  is  an  important  element  in  their  value. 

A  lawyer  must  needs  study  uninteresting  old  statutes, 
dry  and  ancient  blue  books,  stupid,  antiquated  ordinances, 
early  black-letter  precedents,  to  find  out  what  the  law  is 
and  what  his  client's  rights  are.     Unless  he  can  study 


128  Humanistic  Studies 

alertly,  patiently,  and  discriminatingly  all  these  unin- 
teresting, hard,  and  dry  sources  of  the  law  and  bases  of 
rights,  he  will  never  reach  the  higher  walk  of  his  profes- 
sion. Many  men  have  natural  aptitude  for  this.  Many 
men  have  such  superior  ambition  and  industry  that  they 
will  learn  how  to  do  this  work  when  the  necessity  for  it 
overtakes  them.  Of  them  we  do  not  speak.  But  for 
the  average  youth  who  aims  to  become  a  lawyer  there 
is  great  need  that  he  be  given  special  training  in  the  inter- 
pretation of  documents  which  are  uninteresting,  bard,  and 
dry.  He  will  have  no  end  of  it  to  do  in  his  profession. 
He  should  conquer  this  preliminary  difficulty  before  he 
enters  upon  his  work.  And  while  hard  work  for  hard 
work's  sake  is  a  solecism,  hard  work  in  something  worth 
while,  for  the  strength  and  skill  to  be  gained  thereby,  is 
the  essence  of  all  disciplinary  education.  And  this 
applies  to  the  study  of  the  classics  by  the  would-be 
lawyer. 

I  have  said  nothing  of  the  fact  that  there  are  thou- 
sands of  legal  terms  adopted  bodily  from  the  Latin;  that 
the  terminology  of  the  law  is  largely  a  Latin  terminology; 
that  our  law  itself  is  built  upon  the  Roman  law  as  a  founda- 
tion, to  a  degree  that  only  our  best  lawyers  realize;  that 
most  of  the  legal  conceptions  which  are  daily  employed 
in  the  profession  are  largely  Roman  in  their  origin;  that 
the  full-blown  judicial  statements  with  which  the  early 
common  law  abounds  were  many  of  them  taken  almost 
bodily  from  the  Roman  law;  that,  in  the  language  of  Sir 
Matthew  Hale,  "a  man  could  never  well  understand  law 
as  a  science  without  first  resorting  to  the  Roman  law  for 
information";  and  he  lamented  that  it  was  so  little 
studied  in  England  (I  Kent,  546). 

In  all  this  the  person  who  appreciates  the  value  of  the 


Law  129 

scientific  treatment  of  law  will  find  powerful  additional 
arguments  for  the  study  of  the  classics.  The  Latin  of 
the  Institutes  is  mainly  post-classical  in  the  technical 
sense,  but  may  be  treated  as  classical  for  present  pur- 
poses. I  have  often  regretted  that  the  colleges  in  their 
offerings  of  Latin  do  not  more  often  include  the  Institutes 
of  Gains  and  Justinian,  which  would  familiarize  the 
student,  not  only  with  classical  forms  of  thought  and 
expression,  but  with  legal  conceptions  also. 

We  know,  of  course,  that  the  slang  of  the  street,  the 
jargon  of  the  market-place,  and  the  vogue  of  the  moment 
pervade  the  current  use  of  English.  This  is  true  of  every 
other  language  in  current  use.  We  know  again  that 
among  the  thousand  books  put  forth  each  year,  but  one 
or  two  survive  and  are  worth  our  study.  And  we  are 
ofttimes  perplexed  to  select  those  two,  and  avoid  loss 
of  time  and  effort  upon  the  unworthy.  But  among  the 
classics  the  winnowing  hand  of  Time  has  made  the  selec- 
tion for  us.  The  slang,  the  jargon,  and  the  vogue  have 
passed.  The  clamorous  utterances  of  the  ephemeral 
and  the  unworthy  have  perished.  The  fittest,  however, 
survive. 

One  accent  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
The  heedless  world  hath  never  lost. 

And  these  are  our  classics;  these,  the  testings  and 
selections  which  the  ages  have  pronounced  worthy.  It 
is  the  absorption  of  these,  the  mastery  of  their  spirit,  and 
the  equipment  that  they  yield,  which  give  to  the  educated 
lawyer  his  special  strength;  which  give  the  educated  man 
in  every  field  his  sense  of  kinship  with  the  great  minds 
of  all  ages;  which  store  his  mind  with  the  resources  of 
the  world;  which  give  the  spirit  of  fight  and  leading 
which  he  needs. 


130  Humanistic  Studies 

The  man  who  knows  his  classics  goes  through  the 
work  of  hfe  saying: 

I  hear  the  lofty  paeans 

Of  the  masters  of  the  shell, 
Who  heard  the  starry  music 

And  recount  the  numbers  well; 
Olympian  bards  who  sung 

Divine  Ideas  below, 
Which  always  find  us  young 

And  always  keep  us  so. 

And  he  has  within  him  the  sense  of  largeness  and  of 
power  that  gives  him  in  some  degree,  however  small,  a 
fellowship  with  the  greatest  and  noblest — with 

Caesar's  hand,  and  Plato's  brain. 

The  Lord  Christ's  heart,  and  Shakespeare's  strain. 


II.     THE  STUDY  OF  GREEK  AND  LATIN  AS  A  PREP- 
ARATION FOR  THE  STUDY  OF  LAW 

LYNDEN  EVANS 
Of  the  Chicago  Bar 

If  one  were  to  select  a  single  word  to  express  the  aims 
and  ambitions  of  the  present  day  in  substantially  every 
field  of  human  effort,  that  word  would  be  ''efficiency." 
The  result  is  everywhere  the  principal  thing  sought  after, 
and,  with  regret  it  must  be  said,  the  method  of  reaching 
the  result  is  considered  with  more  or  less  indifference. 
This  applies  even  to  the  training  of  lawyers.  There  is  a 
widespread  indifference  upon  the  subject,  in  general,  as 
well  as  a  tendency  away  from  the  study  of  the  classics 
as  a  preliminary  professional  training. 

That  the  study  of  Latin  and  Greek  has  tradition  on 
its  side  is  no  longer  an  effective  argument.  We  should, 
therefore,  abandon  that  argument,  and  we  may  abandon 
it  without  regret;  for,  in  the  first  place,  it  is  a  waste  of 


Law  131 

time  to  advance  an  argument  which  we  know  will  not 
be  considered  by  the  jury  to  which  we  are  addressing 
it — such  procedure  only  wearies  the  hearers;  and,  in  the 
second  place,  there  is  a  change  in  the  conditions  surround- 
ing the  practice  of  the  law  which  calls  for  a  restatement 
of  what  is  necessary  in  preparatory  courses,  and  if  we 
found  our  arguments  upon  present  needs,  we  shall  get  a 
hearing  before  those  whom  we  desire  to  reach. 

The  changes  in  conditions  now  demand  greater  breadth 
of  view  in  members  of  the  bar,  and  the  reason  is  not  far 
to  seek.  From  the  days  of  Magna  Charta  to  our  Civil 
War  the  legal  profession  furnished  the  leaders,  and  was 
the  most  important  factor  in  the  development  of  political 
liberty.  Its  writs  of  habeas  corpus  and  trial  by  jury 
have  been  among  the  means  of  developing  individual 
freedom  and  a  true  democracy.  So  long  as  the  pressing 
questions  were  those  relating  to  the  basic  rights  of  men, 
the  lawyer  necessarily,  in  the  practice  of  his  profession, 
was  compelled  to  consider  the  rights  of  all  members  of 
society,  and  in  a  measure  to  keep  in  consideration  the 
status  of  all  citizens  or  subjects;  and  this  naturally 
developed  a  breadth  of  view.  But  all  these  great  and 
important  questions  have  been  substantially  settled. 
No  longer  do  the  virtues  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  and 
the  right  of  trial  by  jury  serve  as  the  grandiloquent  pero- 
rations of  Fourth  of  July  speeches.  Our  questions  today 
are  what  Mr.  Lecky  would  call  "money  disputes,"  and 
these  have  a  narrowing  tendency.  While  the  lawyer  of 
today  has  to  know  the  wider  and  more  complicated 
business  relations  that  now  exist,  and  know  them  better 
than  the  lawyer  of  half  a  century  ago,  the  relations  are 
financial,  absolutely;  human  interests  and  the  develop- 
ment of  society  are  less  and  less  necessary  subjects  of 


132  Humanistic  Studies 

inquiry  in  the  actual  practice  of  our  profession,  and  we 
must  therefore  meet  the  narrowing  tendency  by  a  broader 
training  in  order  to  produce  the  best  result.  Mere 
breadth  of  view  in  itself  will  be  ineffective  unless  it  is 
accompanied  by  the  power  of  generalization,  for  laws 
themselves  are  but  generalizations  legitimately  drawn 
from  concrete  conditions.  Let  us,  therefore,  taking  no 
account,  for  the  moment,  of  the  development  of  the  mind 
in  accuracy  of  detail,  pass  to  the  more  important  subject, 
to  that  breadth  of  view  which  enables  the  individual  to 
generalize  correctly,  and  hence  to  be  able  to  apply  those 
generalizations  to  specific  facts  submitted  to  him  for  his 
opinion.  Let  us  meet  the  issue  squarely,  not  by  praising 
the  value  of  Latin  and  Greek,  as  a  means  of  training,  but 
by  comparing  it  with  modern  languages,  mathematics, 
and  the  natural  sciences. 

L  (a)  The  modern  languages  are  in  their  nature 
changing,  and  current  language  is  full  of  colloquial,  if 
not  slang,  phrases  which  are  not  accurate  expressions  of 
thought.  In  this  respect  the  dead  languages  have  the 
advantage.  The  student  who  studies  the  German  of 
Goethe  and  Schiller  will  probably  remember  no  more 
about  those  works  twenty  years  after  he  has  studied 
them  than  he  would  of  Homer  or  Virgil;  yet  in  neither 
case  would  it  be  reasonable  to  deny  the  disciplinary  value 
of  the  study.  But  the  main  advantages  of  dead  lan- 
guages over  modern  languages  is  that  the  subject-matter 
of  the  literature  of  modern  languages  is  our  complex 
modern  life,  full  of  the  emotions  of  pity  and  sympathy. 
The  subject-matter  of  the  literature  of  the  dead  lan- 
guages is  more  remote  from  us;  it  stimulates  thought 
rather  than  emotion;  the  records  of  wars,  the  great  jury 
speeches  of  Demosthenes  and  Cicero,  the  laws  and  politi- 


Law  133 

cal  institutions  of  the  peoples  of  antiquity,  when  properly 
studied,  involve  accurate  expression  and  logical  rather  than 
sympathetic  development.  Nor  are  the  poems  of  Homer 
or  Virgil  an  exception ;  their  appeal  to  us  is  not  emotional 
in  the  modern  sense;  the  subjects  stressed  in  Greek  and 
Latin  literature  are  the  conduct  of  life  and  the  govern- 
ment of  men  and  the  lessons  of  history — the  subject- 
matter  of  that  literature  itself  educates  a  lawyer. 

(b)  Again,  the  advantage  of  Latin  and  Greek  over 
any  modern  language  grows  out  of  the  fact  that  our  own 
tongue  consists  of  these  languages  or  their  derivatives 
grafted  upon  an  Anglo-Saxon  stock.  We  cannot  learn 
Latin  and  Greek  without  learning  English  better;  and 
he  who  is  a  good  Latin  grammarian  is  a  good  English 
grammarian  without  further  study.  It  was  James 
Russell  Lowell  who  said  that  he  believed  he  had  never 
made  a  mistake  in  the  meaning  of  an  English  word  until 
one  day  in  a  hurry  he  consulted  an  English  dictionary 
instead  of  a  Greek  or  Latin  dictionary  for  the  root  mean- 
ing of  the  word  sought.  For  the  man  who  has  studied 
Latin  and  Greek,  the  saving  of  time  and  labor  that  comes 
from  knowing  the  meaning  of  an  EngUsh  word  of  classical 
origin  met  with  for  the  first  time  is  a  large  element  in  the 
economy  of  time;  and,  in  addition,  because  he  knows  the 
fundamental  meaning  of  the  word,  he  has  an  accuracy 
of  definition  that  cannot  be  obtained  from  an  English 
dictionary  which  gives  all  the  various  uses  of  a  word 
without  making  prominent  the  root  meaning  in  the  foreign 
language. 

(c)  A  third  advantage  arises  from  the  fact  that  Latin 
law  has  been  grafted  upon  Anglo-Saxon  law.  Our  prac- 
tice in  chancery  borrows  from  the  civil  law  both  its  sub- 
stantive enactments  and  in  a  large  measure  its  practice, 


134  Humanistic  Studies 

and  all  our  probate  or  surrogate  courts,  by  whatever 
name  they  are  known  in  the  various  states,  are  simply 
inheritors  of  the  ecclesiastical  law  of  England  so  far  as 
applicable  to  American  conditions.  The  civil  law,  and 
not  the  common  law,  controls  descent  and  heirship  in 
almost  all  states  throughout  the  Union  and  in  England. 
It  would  seem  a  waste  of  time  to  attempt  to  elaborate 
the  importance,  for  the  lawyer,  of  a  knowledge  of  the 
language  in  which  is  written  so  large  a  part  of  the  law 
which  is"  in  full  force  and  effect  today  throughout  this 
Union. 

(d)  It  might  be  claimed  that  the  last  argument  was 
merely  academic,  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  from  the 
ingrafting  of  Latin  upon  our  Saxon  stock  of  law  have  come 
also  Latin  expressions  of  commonest  use.  Our  writs 
are  Latin  words.  Many  of  our  forms  of  pleading  and  all 
the  great  principles  of  jurisprudence  have  been  sum- 
marized in  brief  Latin  statements  which  we  call  maxims; 
in  an  age  when  "brevity"  is  the  second  word  to  "effi- 
ciency," the  practical  value  of  this  cannot  be  underesti- 
mated. To  the  legal  mind  the  fact  that  any  argument 
made  comes  legitimately  and  rationally  within  the  scope 
of  one  of  those  great  maxims  which  have  guided  our 
courts  for  centuries  gives  it  weight  and  invites  consider- 
ation, because  it  shows  that  the  argument  depends  upon 
no  novel  or  fictitious  basis,  but  is  in  agreement  with  the 
experience  of  our  race  in  the  administration  of  justice. 

II.  The  comparison  between  the  classics  and  mathe- 
matics in  point  of  training  is  nowadays  less  insisted  upon; 
nor  do  lawyers,  as  a  rule,  feel  that  any  great  question 
can  be  raised  here,  for  the  importance  of  mathematics 
is  unquestioned.  But  should  the  question  arise  whether, 
after  the  elementary  principles  of  mathematics  and  the 


Law  135 

elements  of  the  Latin  or  Greek  languages  have  been  mas- 
tered, to  which  additional  time  should  be  given,  we  must 
say  that,  since  mathematics  deals  only  with  the  relations 
of  numbers,  while  language  and  literature  deal  with  the 
expression  of  the  relations,  not  only  of  numbers,  but  also 
of  life  and  its  rules  of  conduct,  the  study  of  the  languages 
must  give  the  wider  vision  of  the  two. 

IIL  But  the  real  conflict  in  the  feeling  of  today  is  in 
regard  to  the  supposed  advantages  of  the  study  of  the 
natural  sciences  over  that  of  the  ancient  classics.  Even 
if  it  be  generally  agreed  that  the  study  of  mathematics, 
despite  its  greater  finality  of  conclusion  and  exactness 
of  process,  is,  from  the  point  of  view  of  this  discussion, 
inferior  to  the  study  of  ancient  languages  because  its 
subject-matter  is  so  unlike  human  conduct — the  rules 
of  mathematics  having  no  analogy  to  the  rules  of  human 
life — it  is  claimed  that  the  study  of  the  natural  sciences 
will  give  an  equal,  if  not  superior,  training  in  accuracy 
through  exact  observation  of  the  processes  of  nature, 
and  that  the  knowledge  thereby  gained  is  more  fruitful 
than  that  acquired  from  the  study  of  the  Latin  and  Greek 
languages.  The  question  involved  is  not  as  to  what 
knowledge  itself  is  the  more  useful  or  the  more  easily 
remembered,  but  which  is  the  better  discipline  for  the 
mind  in  preparation  for  the  study  and  practice  of  the 
profession.  In  the  study  of  the  natural  world,  teachers 
are  often  misled  by  the  fact  that  their  pupils  show  a 
greater  interest  in  such  subjects  than  in  the  comparatively 
abstract  study  of  language,  the  cause  of  this  interest 
being  largely  the  pleasure  of  sense-perception.  The  eye 
and  the  ear  easily  acquire  what  the  reasoning  mind  must 
with  difficulty  assimilate.  But  this  very  fact  makes  it 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  training  in  the  sciences  will 


130  Humanistic  Studies 

not  give  the  power  to  deduce  abstract  rules  of  conduct 
because  the  sense-interest  dominates  the  thought-interest. 
The  subject-matter  of  the  physical  sciences,  furthermore, 
brings  the  student  ever  back  to  the  immutable  laws  of 
nature,  and  so,  like  mathematics,  it  fails  to  aid  him 
directly  in  studying  the  mutable  conditions  of  human 
conduct.  The  interests  involved  are  not  human,  the 
operation  of  natural  laws  is  too  unlike  the  collective  effect 
of  individual  free  will.  The  very  statement  of  this  fact 
ought  to  satisfy  the  reason  upon  this  point  and  make 
applicable  the  legal  maxim,  res  ipsa  loquitur. 

IV.  Another  important  desideratum  in  the  training 
of  a  lawyer  is  accuracy  of  interpretation.  While  one 
is  studying  Latin  and  Greek  he  is  being  trained  in  a 
method  verj^  like  that  which  he  must  pursue  in  construing 
a  law.  Pick  up  a  statute  just  enacted,  and  begin  to  study 
it  carefully  to  find  out  what  its  full  meaning  and  effect 
is,  and  j'ou  are  doing  precisely  the  same  thing  as  when 
you  take  a  passage  of  Livy  or  Tacitus  and  endeavor  to 
find  its  exact  meaning.  Every  word  must  be  weighed, 
and  the  point  of  its  position  in  the  sentence  determined. 
The  effect  of  former  laws  in  a  case  is  like  the  effect  of  the 
preceding  sentences  or  the  context;  and  the  meaning  of 
that  sentence  as  related  to  the  following  sentences,  as  to 
whether  it  makes  a  complete  story,  is  like  the  considera- 
tion of  the  full  meaning  of  the  statue  itself  in  connection 
with  the  rest  of  the  substantive  law  on  the  question 
involved.  This  determination  of  the  meaning  of  statutes 
is  one  of  the  most  practical  duties  of  a  lawyer.  It  will 
hardly  be  maintained  by  anyone  that,  as  a  preparation 
for  this  sort  of  work,  the  natural  sciences  or  mathematics 
will  have  a  practical  value  in  training  equal  to  that  of 
Greek  and  Latin. 


Law  137 

I  have  not  attempted  to  discuss  those  very  important, 
but  apparently  less  practical,  sides  of  the  question  which 
are  most  often  dwelt  on  at  length — such  as  the  develop- 
ment of  the  taste,  the  acquiring  of  elegance  of  expression, 
and  the  distinction  of  learning — which  are  so  often  urged 
in  favor  of  the  study  of  the  classics,  because,  as  a  rule, 
in  the  discussion  of  this  subject  the  force  of  such  con- 
siderations is  admitted  by  those  who  differ  from  us.  I 
have  felt  the  need  of  presenting  this  question  in  a  practi- 
cal and  concrete  waj',  because  my  experience  in  lecturing 
to  law  students  has  led  me  to  believe  that  this  is  the  line 
of  argument  most  apt  to  be  effective  at  the  present  day, 
or  at  least  while  the  fever  of  hurry  is  still  a  distinguishing 
characteristic  of  the  age. 

Furthermore,  that  the  argument  in  favor  of  classic  a 
study  may  be  effective,  it  must  be  of  a  kind  which  will 
ordinarily  be  appreciated  by  young  men  about  to  begin 
the  last  stages  of  study  before  actually  engaging  in  their 
work  of  life,  and  not  of  the  kind  which  will  appeal  only 
to  older  men  whose  successes  and  failures  have  taught 
them  to  view  these  questions  with  a  greater  regard  for  the 
value  of  professional  training  as  it  fits  into  and  becomes 
part  of  the  experience  of  life  than  as  a  means  of  imme- 
diate financial  return.  Whichever  class  of  argument 
may  be  the  more  effective,  we  shall  all  agree  that  the  day 
has  gone  which  could  prompt  the  couplet  of  Edmund 
Waller: 

Poets  who  would  marble  seek 
Must  come  in  Latin  or  in  Greek. 

Nevertheless,  we  cannot  forget  that,  with  very  few  excep- 
tions, lawyers  who  have  come  to  distinguish  themselves 
in  their  profession  and  to  be  of  use  to  the  world  have 
come  through  Latin  or  through  Greek. 


138  Humanistic  Studies 

III.     THE  ANCIENT  CLASSICS  AS  A  PREPARATION 
FOR  THE  STUDY  OF  LAW 

DEAN  (NOW  PRESIDENT)  H.  B.  HUTCHINS 

University  of  Michigan 

Aside  from  the  elementary  branches,  no  particular 
subject  is  absolutely  essential  as  a  basis  for  the  study  and 
practice  of  the  law.  In  this  respect  the  law  occupies  a 
place  somewhat  different  from  that  of  the  other  learned 
professions.  The  student  and  practitioner  of  medicine 
must  of  necessity  get  a  substantial  scientific  foundation 
for  his  professional  work.  This  for  him  is  an  absolutely 
essential  prerequisite.  For  the  professional  courses  in 
engineering  a  special  and  definite  scientific  preparation 
must  be  made;  without  it  nothing  but  the  most  ordinary 
work  in  engineering  can  be  accomplished.  And  it  is 
probable  that  for  theology,  work  along  certain  well- 
defined  lines  is  desirable,  if  not  essential.  But  it  by  no 
means  follows  that,  because  success  in  the  study  of  the 
law  or  in  the  practice  of  it  does  not  depend  upon  the  mas- 
tery of  particular  subjects,  a  thorough  preparation  there- 
for is  not  necessary.  The  contrary  is  most  emphatically 
true,  particularly  at  the  present  time.  The  law  is  a 
practical  subject,  most  intimately  connected  with  the 
private  interests  of  the  citizen,  and  with  questions  affect- 
ing his  public  rights  and  obligations;  but  it  is  at  the  same 
time  a  science,  the  mastery  of  which  requires  a  mental 
equipment  above  the  ordinary.  No  one  can  hope  for 
much  success  as  a  student  of  it  without  adequate  prelim- 
inary training,  or  in  its  application  as  an  art,  without 
being  prepared  for  the  keenest  kind  of  intellectual  com- 
petition. 

Upon  the  very  threshold  of  his  work  the  law  student 
discovers  that  his  success  is  to  depend  very  largely  upon 


Law  139 

his  equipment — not  upon  his  having  mastered  any  par- 
ticular subject,  but  upon  his  having  made  himself  master 
of  his  own  mental  processes  to  such  an  extent  that  he 
can  do  independent  and  original  thinking.  The  funda- 
mental principles  of  the  different  departments  of  the  law 
must  be  mastered,  and,  that  their  full  significance  may 
be  appreciated,  their  historical  development  through  the 
successive  decisions  of  the  courts  must  be  traced.  But 
he  soon  discovers  that  his  task  embraces  more  than  the 
memorizing  of  principles,  and  the  study  of  their  origin 
and  growth.  His  eyes  are  soon  opened  to  the  fact  that 
the  serious  business  of  the  law  student  consists  in  the 
application  of  general  principles  to  the  solution  of  prob- 
lems involving  new  conditions  and  varying  statements 
of  fact.  And  then,  too,  he  discovers  directly  that, 
although  the  body  of  the  settled  law  is  large,  there  are 
continually  arising  questions  upon  which  the  law  is 
unsettled,  and  whose  solution  requires  the  harmonizing, 
if  possible,  of  conflicting  decisions,  or,  where  this  is  not 
possible,  the  determination  as  to  the  weight  of  reason 
and  authority.  He  soon  discovers  that  or  every  step 
taken  and  for  every  conclusion  reached  a  logical  and 
forceful  reason  must  be  assigned.  It  is  needless  for  me 
to  suggest  that  work  of  this  nature,  if  successfully  accom- 
plished, calls  for  analytical  power  and  constructive  ability; 
it  demands  the  informed  and  trained  judgment  of  an 
educated  man.  While  occasionally  one  having  a  natural 
aptitude  for  the  law  may  be  able,  even  with  limited 
preparation,  to  master  its  principles  and  the  art  of  its 
application,  and  to  push  to  the  front  with  apparent  ease, 
the  fact  remains  that,  as  a  rule,  the  appreciative  and 
successful  study  of  jurisprudence  demands  preliminary 
training  of  a  high  order  and  of  the  thorough  and  rigorous 
kind. 


140  Humanistic  Studies 

And  if  such  training  is  necessary  for  the  student,  it  is 
certainly  doubly  so  for  the  practitioner.  He  must  be 
master,  not  only  of  legal  principles,  but  also  of  the  art  of 
applying  them  to  the  actual  alTairs  of  life.  The  success- 
ful lawyer  must  not  only  have  in  mind  and  ready  for 
immediate  use  the  essential  and  fundamental  doctrines 
of  the  law,  but  he  must  have  his  faculties  so  disciplined 
and  under  control  that  he  is  always  prepared  for  emer- 
gencies. Men  with  ordinary  equipment  can  do  only 
ordinary  things  and  fill  the  ordinary  places,  but  the  men 
who,  through  ability  and  training,  are  equal  to  the  unex- 
pected are  bound  to  go  to  the  front.  More  perhaps  than 
the  man  in  any  other  profession  does  the  lawyer  need  a 
large  range  of  general  information.  His  work  is  so  varied, 
and  touches  life  at  so  many  different  points  and  frequently 
in  so  unexpected  a  way,  that  he  will  constantly  find  him- 
self embarrassed  and  handicapped  without  the  intel- 
lectual masterfulness  that  comes  from  thorough  and 
vigorous  preliminary  study.  Unless  his  attention  is 
especially  challenged  to  the  fact,  the  layman  rarely  appre- 
ciates the  extent  and  variety  of  learning,  aside  from  the 
strictly  professional,  that  the  lawyer  must  from  time  to 
time  summon  to  his  aid  in  the  course  of  a  varied  career 
at  the  bar.  If  he  has  been  liberally  and  thoroughly 
trained,  the  knowledge  necessary  for  the  emergency  may 
be  his;  but  if  it  is  not  his,  he  has  what  is  quite  as  useful 
— the  ability  to  acquire  at  short  notice  and  under  pressure 
the  necessary  special  information. 

The  notion  that  I  seek  to  impress,  that  large  success 
at  the  bar  demands  great  versatility  and  thorough  general 
training,  may  perhaps  be  made  more  apparent  by  illus- 
tration. The  litigation  in  hand  may  require  the  examina- 
tion, by  the  lawyer  in  charge,  of  learned  experts  in  some 


Law  141 

particular  field  of  science — in  electricity,  for  example. 
In  order  to  develop  his  case  through  the  examination  of 
his  own  experts,  and  to  detect  error  and  expose  fallacies 
in  the  testimony  of  the  experts  of  his  adversary,  it  is 
absolutely  essential  that  he  have  a  working  knowledge 
of  the  specialty.  Moreover,  in  the  argument  of  the  case 
he  must  become  in  a  sense  the  instructor  of  the  court  and 
of  the  jury,  if  there  be  one;  for  he  must  make  plain  to 
them  the  full  significance  of  the  scientific  testimony 
adduced  and  its  bearing  upon  the  controversy  that  they 
are  to  decide.  The  full  extent  of  the  task  will  be  appre- 
ciated when  it  is  remembered  that  in  many  such  cases, 
perhaps  in  most  of  them,  both  court  and  jury  are  ignorant 
of  the  ordinary  and  fundamental  principles  of  the  science 
involved,  and  must  depend  for  their  enlightenment 
entirely  upon  the  skill  of  the  attorneys  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  case  through  the  testimony  and  its  presenta- 
tion in  the  argument.  The  case  may  be  one  involving 
the  question  of  mental  capacity,  either  to  do  a  particular 
act,  or  to  appreciate  the  moral  and  legal  consequences 
of  a  particular  act.  A  controversy  of  this  kind  plunges 
the  lawyer  at  once  into  the  uncertain  domain  of  the 
alienist,  and,  in  order  that  he  may  do  his  full  duty  to 
his  client  or  the  pubhc,  a  working  knowledge  of  the 
various  forms  of  insanity  is  an  absolute  necessity.  The 
extent  to  which  a  preparation  in  this  regard  at  times 
becomes  necessary,  and  the  uses  to  which  such  prepara- 
tion may  be  put,  are  well  illustrated  in  the  trial  in  New 
York  that  is  just  now  attracting  so  much  public  atten- 
tion. Another  striking  illustration  of  the  uses  to  which 
knowledge  that  apparently  has  little  or  no  bearing  upon 
the  practice  of  the  law  may  be  put  in  a  legal  proceeding 
is  to  be  found  in  the  recent  insurance  investigation  by  the 


142  Humanistic  Studies 

Arinstrong;  (\5111mittee  in  the  city  of  New  York.  The 
remarkably  brilliant  work  of  Mr.  Hughes  in  connection 
with  that  investigation  has  placed  him  in  the  front  rank 
of  American  lawyers.  His  attitude  upon  public  ques- 
tions, and  the  belief  of  the  people  that  he  has  the  strength 
and  the  courage  to  accomplish  the  reforms  that  he  advo- 
cates, together  with  his  reputation  as  an  honest  and 
brilliant  lawyer,  have  opened  up  for  him  a  career  outside 
of  his  profession;  but  it  is  simply  to  his  work  as  a  lawyer 
before  the  Armstrong  Committee  that  I  would  direct 
attention.  The  secret  of  his  achievement  there  was  his 
preparedness,  and  the  secret  of  his  preparedness  lay  in 
the  fact  that,  while  securing  a  thorough  preliminary 
training,  he  became  a  profound  mathematician.  The 
mathematics  of  insurance  and  the  intricacies  of  insurance 
methods  were  to  him  an  open  book.  His  investigations, 
therefore,  were  thoroughly  and  rapidly  made,  and  his 
conclusions  fortified  by  a  knowledge  of  details  that  to  the 
uninitiated  was  simply  marvelous.  He  was  able  to  meet 
the  insurance  expert  upon  his  own  ground  and  to  con- 
found him  by  practical  demonstrations  of  his  wrong- 
doing. 

But  further  illustration  is  probably  unnecessary.  It 
must  be  apparent,  I  think,  that  the  lawyer,  if  he  is  to 
win  a  place  in  the  profession,  must  be  able  to  summon  to 
his  aid  such  special  knowledge  as  may  be  necessary  to 
meet  the  exigencies  of  his  practice  as  they  may  arise.  It 
cannot  be  expected,  of  course,  that  any  considerable  part 
of  this  will  be  secured  through  preliminary  study.  Occa- 
sionally such  study  may  furnish  it.  But  preparatory 
training,  if  of  the  proper  sort,  will  furnish  what,  in  a 
large  way,  is  vastly  more  important  than  special  knowl- 
edge, namely,  the  ability  to  assimilate  and  put  to  practi- 


Law  143 

cal  use,  as  the  occasion  demands,  the  results  of  the  work 
of  other  men. 

The  foregoing,  by  w&y  of  introduction,  leads  naturally, 
I  think,  to  the  suggestion  that  I  desire  to  emphasize, 
namely,  that  preparation  for  the  law  should  be  made  by 
the  study  of  such  subjects  as  will  train  a  man  to  acquire 
easily  and  rapidly,  and  to  think  logically  and  independently. 
And,  in  my  judgment,  the  subjects  the  study  of  which 
tends  to  the  development  of  these  qualities  are  those 
which  require  of  the  student  strenuous,  painstaking,  and 
persistent  effort  for  their  mastery.  If  I  could  regulate 
the  preparation  of  law  students,  I  would  eliminate  from 
the  course  all  predigested  and  specially  prepared  foods, 
and  I  would  give  the  young  man  something  that  would 
demand  earnest  effort  on  his  part  to  assimilate.  While 
I  believe  in  and  advocate  a  thorough  college  course  as  a 
preparation  for  the  study  of  law,  and  while  I  hope  that 
the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  such  a  course,  or  its 
equivalent,  may  be  made  a  prerequisite  for  legal  study, 
I  am  frank  to  say  that  the  young  man  who  has  a  thorough 
old-fashioned  classical  and  mathematical  preparation  for 
college  is,  in  my  judgment,  much  better  fitted  for  the 
study  of  law  than  is  the  man  who,  during  four  years  in 
college,  has  dissipated  his  energy  and  weakened  his  power 
to  think  clearly  and  logically  by  desultory  and  pointless 
work  in  "snap"  courses  that  require  little  or  no  effort 
on  his  part.  But  I  wish  it  understood  that,  in  making  this 
statement,  I  do  not  intend  a  criticism  of  the  elective 
system  as  such,  for  I  believe  in  it;  but  I  believe  also  that 
it  should  always  be  so  supervised  and  regulated  that 
disciplinary  subjects  predominate  during  at  least  the 
first  half  of  the  course.  Under  such  a  plan  the  student 
comes  to  the  specialized  work  of  the  last  Wo  years  with  a 


144  Humanistic  Studies 

quiokoiuHl  antl  strengthened  mind  and  an  informed 
judgment. 

And  it  is  because  the  preparatory  study  of  the  law 
stucient  should  be  of  the  strenuous  kind  that  the  ancient 
classics  may  well  take  a  prominent  place  in  the  prelimi- 
nary course.  There  can  be  no  question,  I  think,  as  to 
their  disciplinary  value.  It  is  quite  impossible  for  one 
to  master  the  elements  of  Latin  or  Greek,  and  to  attain 
a  reading  familiarity  with  either  of  those  languages, 
without  a  painstaking  and  continuous  mental  effort. 
There  must  be  a  persistent  training  of  the  memory  and  a 
constant  exercise  of  the  judgment.  For  the  prospective 
lawyer  there  can  be  no  better  discipline  than  that  which 
comes  from  the  discriminating  effort  involved  in  careful 
translation.  The  lawyer's  professional  life  must  largely 
be  devoted  to  the  interpretation  of  the  law  and  to  the 
preparation  and  interpretation  of  legal  instruments;  and 
the  greater  his  skill  in  the  use  of  language  and  in  discover- 
ing shades  of  meaning,  the  greater  his  effectiveness. 
But,  putting  all  this  aside  and  conceding,  for  the  moment, 
that  the  study  of  the  ancient  classics  is  without  practical 
value,  and  that  whatever  we  learn  of  them  is  soon  for- 
gotten, we  still  cannot  escape  the  fact  that  the  mental 
power  and  effectiveness  that  are  the  results  of  that  study 
remain  with  the  man  and  become  a  part,  and  a  very  large 
part,  of  his  equipment  for  the  activities  of  life. 

But  while  I  would  urge  the  study  of  the  classics  as  a 
part  of  the  preparatory  law  course  largely  for  their  dis- 
ciplinary value,  I  would  also  urge  that  study  on  account 
of  the  facility  that  it  tends  to  give  in  the  use  of  English. 
As  to  this  there  can  be  no  question.  There  is,  in  regard 
to  this,  practically  no  difference  of  opinion  among  edu- 
cators.    The  study  of  English  can  best  be  made  through 


Law  145 

the  Latin  language.  And  that  the  lawyer  needs  to  know 
English  goes  without  saying.  The  most  effective  men 
at  the  bar  are  those  who,  with  good  legal  attainments, 
are  able  to  write  and  speak  simple,  clear,  concise,  and 
forceful  English.  I  do  not  mean  by  this  that  success 
at  the  bar  at  the  present  time  depends  upon  oratory,  as 
popularly  understood,  or  upon  the  arts  of  the  orator,  for 
this  is  not  the  fact,  but  it  does  depend  very  largely  upon 
the  ability  of  the  practitioner  to  clothe  his  ideas  in  a  few 
words  so  arranged  as  to  challenge  at  once  the  attention. 
A  distinguished  English  judge  has  said  that  a  case  clearly 
stated  is  half  won,  and  there  is  certainly  truth  in  the  sug- 
gestion. One  of  the  difficult  tasks  of  the  law  teacher  is 
to  get  from  the  student  a  clear,  concise,  and  definite  state- 
ment of  the  facts  of  the  case  that  is  to  form  the  basis  of 
discussion,  and  in  this  part  of  the  work  the  noticeable 
superiority  of  the  classically  trained  student  is  apparent. 

It  must  be  conceded,  of  course,  that  the  study  of  Latin 
is  of  practical  value  to  the  law  student  by  reason  of  the 
fact  that  Latin  terms  are  very  generally  used  in  the  law. 
This,  however,  I  regard  as  a  matter  of  minor  importance, 
for,  through  the  aid  of  the  dictionary,  the  meaning  of  such 
terms  is  easily  ascertained.  However,  a  student  who  has 
a  reading  knowledge  of  the  language  is  able  to  appreciate 
the  terms  at  once  and  without  the  necessity  of  special 
study. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  suggest  that,  if  one  is  to 
devote  himself  to  the  scholarly  side  of  the  law,  he  should 
be  classically  trained,  and  that  his  knowledge  of  Latin 
and  Greek  should  be  supplemented  by  at  least  a  reading 
knowledge  of  French  and  German.  The  field  of  the 
jurist  is  a  broad  one,  and  the  ease  and  thoroughness  of 
his  investigations  depend  very  largely  upon  his  ability 


146  Humanistic  Studies 

to  reach  antl  master  the  sources  of  information  through 
the  texts  of  the  originals. 

The  case  that  we  seek  to  estabUsh  would  not  be  com- 
plete without  the  suggestion  that  the  culture  value  of 
humanistic  study  should  not  be  overlooked  in  the  consid- 
eration of  what  should  be  the  training  of  the  prospective 
lawyer.  We  are  too  apt  to  forget,  in  these  intensely 
practical  times,  that  the  professional  man  should  be  first 
of  all  the  well-educated  gentleman.  The  lawyer  should  be 
more  than  a  lawyer,  the  physician  more  than  a  physician, 
the  engineer  more  than  an  engineer.  Each  should  have 
an  educational  basis  that  fits  him  for  something  out- 
side of,  and  l)eyond,  his  profession.  I  would  not  for  a 
moment  claim  that  a  man  cannot  be  well  educated  without 
a  knowledge  of  the  ancient  classics,  for  such  is  not  the 
fact;  but  that  humanistic  study  stimulates  the  mind  to 
seek  what  is  best  in  literature  and  art,  and  furnishes  a 
source  of  culture  and  entertainment  that  broadens  the 
man,  and  enables  him  to  have  an  appreciative  sense  of 
the  value  of  things  outside  of  the  narrow  limits  of  his 
specialty,  cannot  admit  of  doubt. 


IV.    THE   PECULIAR   QUALITY   OF  CLASSICAL 
TRAINING 

HARLOW  P.  DAVOCK 
Of  the  Detroit  Bar 

Justinian  has  well  said  that  the  whole  doctrine  of  the 
law  may  be  reduced  to  three  general  principles:  To  live 
honestly,  to  hurt  nobody,  and  to  render  to  everyone  his 
just  due.  It  becomes,  then,  the  duty  of  the  lawyer  either, 
as  an  advocate,  to  endeavor  to  persuade  those  who  admin- 
ister the  law  to  have  those  things  done  which  should  be 
done,  or,  as  a  judge,  or  acting  in  a  judicial  capacity,  to 


Law  147 

compel  the  doing  of  the  right.  This  in  itself  seems  a 
very  simple  matter,  and  the  ordinary  layman  can  see  no 
particular  reason  why  a  formula  should  not  be  made  to 
fit  every  case,  and  justice  measured  out  by  the  yard, 
according  to  the  size  of  the  garment  desired.  But,  hold- 
ing the  view  that  ''law  is  the  perfection  of  reason,  that  it 
always  intends  to  conform  thereto,  and  that  that  which 
is  not  reason  is  not  law,"  we  see  at  once  how  necessary 
it  is  that  one  who  enters  upon  the  practice  of  law  should 
have  the  most  careful  preparation  for  his  work;  his  task 
requires  the  delicate  application  and  careful  use  of  the 
highest  faculties  with  which  mortal  man  has  been  endowed. 
Where  and  how  can  these  faculties  be  best  developed  ? 

The  time  has  gone  by  when  the  student  would  choose 
a  classical  course  simply  because  its  degree  is  supposed 
to  be  the  earmark  of  a  completed  education.  With  the 
increased  development  in  the  sciences  and  the  so-called 
practical  studies,  a  greater  breadth  of  opportunity  for 
choice  of  studies  is  afforded  to  the  student;  and  we  come 
back  to  the  fundamental  query:  What  is  an  education? 
Whatever  the  process,  we  shall  agree  that  the  trained  or 
educated  man  is  he  who  has  gained  the  power  to  concen- 
trate his  thoughts,  to  reason  correctly,  and  impartially 
to  diagnose  situations  as  they  present  themselves. 

Trite  enough  is  the  proverb  that  there  is  no  royal  road 
to  learning;  but  it  is  not  inappropriate  to  remember 
that  the  road  without  obstructions  is  not  well  adapted 
to  develop  the  resourcefulness  of  the  traveler.  The  very 
fact  that  Latin,  Greek,  algebra,  and  the  calculus  are  hard 
studies  is  a  weighty  reason  why  they  should  be  pursued. 
It  is  the  severe  studies  which,  by  steady  grinding,  bring 
out  from  the  rough  stone  the  diamond.  I  have  no  more 
patience  with  the  man  who  decries  this  work  in  ancient 


148  Humanistic  Studies 

languages  because  it  is  not  practical,  than  I  have  with  the 
professor  who  stated  to  his  class  that  mathematics  were 
in  his  mind  a  mere  chaos,  a  stream  through  which  he  had 
waded,  and  which  was  as  unreal  to  him  as  the  stream 
which  disappears  in  a  western  desert. 

There  is  undoubtedly  a  practical  use  of  Latin  for  the 
lawyer,  as  there  is  a  practical  use  of  Greek  for  the  doctor 
or  clergyman;  but  above  all  else  in  importance  is  the 
peculiar  quality  of  the  training  afforded  by  Latin  and 
Greek  which  develops  the  mind  for  the  analysis  of  the 
intricate  questions  presented  in  the  practice  of  the  law. 
The  modern  law  school  has  come  to  stay.  It  is  becoming 
each  year  more  thorough,  and  is  recognized  as  indis- 
pensable to  the  proper  preparation  for  practice  at  the 
bar;  but  equally  important  should  be  the  educational 
foundation  preparatory  to  matriculation  therein. 

I  was  impressed  with  the  idea,  advanced  by  one  of 
the  speakers  a  year  ago,  that  Latin  and  Greek  are  almost 
always  taught  by  trained  teachers.  The  German  and 
French  course,  when  properl}'  presented,  is  most  valuable, 
but  the  average  of  teaching  in  the  modern  languages  is 
not  so  high  as  in  the  ancient,  and  the  spoken  language 
is  much  more  easily  acquired.  The  competent  clerk  or 
waiter  in  France  and  Germany,  on  account  of  his  environ- 
ment, must  write  or  speak  English;  but  this  does  not 
mean  scholarship.  You  stand  amazed  at  the  fluency 
with  which  a  young  miss  with  an  English  accent  explains 
to  3'ou  the  Palais  de  Justice  at  Brussels,  and  find  that 
she  learned  our  language  by  visiting  a  sister  in  London 
for  two  or  three  months.  The  man  who  succeeds  in  life 
is  he  who  has  gained  the  command  of  his  own  mental 
processes  through  close,  hard  work,  such  as  is  inseparable 
from  the  study  of  Latin,  Greek,  and  mathematics. 


Law  149 

The  question  when  and  how  far  Latin  and  Greek 
should  be  studied  ma}^  be  left  for  determination  to  the 
educational  expert,  but  I  wish  to  enter  my  protest  against 
the  apparent  ease  with  which  other  studies  at  the  present 
time  can  be  substituted.  The  substituting  of  superficial 
polish  for  deep  culture — the  substituting  of  a  kind  of 
Chautauqua  or  lyceum  course  of  lectures  for  the  rigid 
training  of  classics,  mathematics,  and  philosophy — is  to 
my  mind  the  imminent  peril  which  presents  itself  in 
the  present  type  of  college  and  university  curriculum, 
and  surely  for  no  profession  is  sound  and  thorough  pre- 
liminary study  more  needed  than  for  the  law. 

Our  courts  require  and  demand  a  clear  statement  on 
the  part  of  the  counselors  who  appear  before  them.  A 
certain  rhetorical  manner  may  influence  a  jury;  but 
back  of  all  is  the  law,  and  it  is  the  law  as  recognized  and 
applied  by  the  keenest  minds  that  must  ultimately  win. 
In  these  days  of  commercialism  and  Alladin-like  fortunes, 
of  trusts  and  combinations,  let  us  not  forget  that  it  is 
upon  those  who  prepare  laws,  who  enact  laws,  who  exe- 
cute the  law,  who  decide  the  law,  that  the  weal  or  woe 
of  the  nation  depends.  Whatever  makes  the  interpreters 
of  law  intellectually  honest,  whatever  makes  them  true 
thinkers  and  close  analysists,  is  not  only  for  their  better- 
ment, but  for  the  betterment  of  society  as  a  whole.  I 
believe  that  the  humanistic  studies  will  best  help  prepare 
the  lawyer  for  his  part  in  life,  and  I  know  no  greater 
responsibility  than  that  which  rests  upon  the  teachers 
in  our  intermediate  schools — those  who  guide,  direct, 
and  control  the  mind  of  the  student  in  its  formative  period, 
who  should  see  to  it  that  the  studies  of  the  young  student 
are  rightly  chosen. 

In  conclusion,   let   me  say  this,   that  the  successful 


150  Humanistic  Studies 

lawyer  is  he  who  has  not  only  the  body,  but  the  soul,  of 
his  profession;  as  he  has  been  well  and  truly  educated, 
so  will  he  carefully,  conscientiously,  and  faithfully  guide 
those  interests  which  are  either  put  in  his  charge,  or  are 
presented  to  him  for  consideration.  In  legal  training, 
therefore,  let  us  hold  fast  to  this  rigid  preliminary  classi- 
cal study;  and  the  results,  the  greatest  and  best,  will  be 
shown  in  those  who  are  not  the  evanescent  leaders  of  the 
populace,  but  the  true  leaders  of  the  people  and  the  bar. 


V.    GREEK  AND  LATIN  IN  RETROSPECT 

HINTON  E.  SPALDING 
Of  the  Detroit  Bar 

Since  the  time  of  my  own  graduation  from  the  uni- 
versity, it  has  been  a  matter  of  some  solicitude  with  me 
that  there  has  been,  not  only  among  the  students,  but  also 
among  the  faculty,  a  turning-away  from  classical  study, 
with  an  undue  emphasis  on  other  lines  of  university  work. 
And  it  is  because,  from  my  own  experience,  I  believe  in 
the  value,  the  great  value,  of  classical  training  as  a  prepa- 
ration for  the  practice  of  the  law,  and  because  I  deprecate 
the  tendency  to  which  I  have  alluded,  that  I  came  out 
here  this  afternoon  to  give  such  reasons  as  I  might  for 
the  "faith  that  is  in  me." 

It  is  hardly  worth  while  to  discuss  further  the  propo- 
sition which  is  before  us,  because  the  argument  lies  in  a 
narrow  compass,  and  it  has  already  been  set  forth  fully 
and  forcibly.  However,  as  conviction  generally  depends 
more  upon  feeling  and  upon  personal  testimony  than 
upon  any  logical  process  of  argument,  it  may  be  worth 
while  to  say  a  word  about  my  own  experience  as  deter- 
mining my  point  of  view. 


Law  151 

It  is  almost  thirty  years  since  Professor  D'Ooge  gave 
me  my  entrance  examination  in  Latin  and  Greek.  I 
liked  classical  study,  and  for  that  reason,  and  for  no  other, 
I  have  continued  to  read  the  classics  ever  since;  without 
pursuing  any  systematic  course,  I  have,  I  think,  in  every 
year  since  I  left  college,  and  in  most  of  the  months  of 
every  year,  read  more  or  less  Greek  and  some  Latin. 

In  this  connection  I  wish  to  record  a  doubt  as  to  the 
advisability  of  casting  aside  classical  studies  at  so  early 
a  stage  in  the  college  course  as  seemed  to  be  suggested 
by  Dean  Hutchins.  You  can  get  the  discipline  by  the 
end  of  the  Freshman  year;  but  unless  you  have  much 
better  preparation  in  Latin  and  Greek  than  it  was  my 
lot  to  have,  no  man  who  has  finished  his  Freshman  year 
has  gotten  or  is  able  to  get  the  cream  of  what  is  to  be  had 
from  the  study  of  these  languages.  You  must  be  able 
to  read  at  sight — you  must  be  independent  of  Liddell 
and  Scott;  and  such  a  command,  of  Greek  at  least,  cannot 
be  acquired  without  a  longer  preparation.  The  ability 
to  read  Greek  and  Latin  at  sight  has,  in  my  estimation, 
a  value  aside  from  the  disciplinary  for  professional  pur- 
poses: in  that  way,  and  in  that  way  only,  can  one  get 
the  close  and  intimate  knowledge  of  literature,  which 
after  all  is  most  essential.  I  dismiss  consideration  of  the 
disciplinary  effect,  for  that  is  common  to  all  studies 
involving  hard  intellectual  labor. 

Fundamental  in  the  work  of  the  lawyer  is  the  investi- 
gation of  truth.  This  investigation  he  carries  on  under 
great  disadvantages,  because  his  material  is  the  infinite 
multitude  of  facts  of  human  life  continually  shifting  and 
changing,  imperfectly  understood  at  the  best,  being  sub- 
ject to  continual  modifications.  He  can  carry  on  no  exact 
experimentation  in  his  work,  and  the  instrument  of  his 


152  Humanistic  Studies 

investigation  is  language  considered  as  a  vehicle  for  the 
exact  expression  of  thought.  I  know  that  it  is  commonly 
thought  that  the  lawyer  is  not  primarily  concerned  with 
the  investigation  of  truth,  but  rather  with  the  success 
of  a  particular  cause  or  interest;  I  had  that  opinion 
myself  when  I  began  practicing,  but  any  professional 
man  who  is  worth  his  salt,  if  he  ever  held  that  opinion, 
changes  it  before  he  achieves  substantial  success.  Pri- 
marily the  interest  of  the  lawyer  is  the  interest  of  his 
client,  but  every  lawyer  who  attains  any  great  measure 
of  success  comes  to  realize  that  he  best  fulfils  his  pro- 
fessional duty  who  serves  his  client  with  full  recognition 
of  his  higher  allegiance  to  the  truth. 

For  the  purposes  of  this  investigation  he  must  learn 
to  pick  out  from  the  mass  of  circumstances,  relevant  and 
irrelevant,  essential  and  unessential,  the  controlling  facts. 
He  must  learn  to  see  them  clearly,  and  to  perceive  them 
in  all  their  relations  and  bearings  uninfluenced  by  imagi- 
nation or  by  sympathy,  but  making  due  allowance  for 
the  effect  of  imagination  and  sympathy  upon  others. 
A  prime  characteristic  of  the  classical  literature,  and  par- 
ticularly the  Greek,  is  an  ever-present  sense  of  measure 
and  proportion,  clear  perception  of  the  idea  in  mind  and 
adequate  expression  of  it,  a  perfect  command  of  all  the 
resources  of  expression  and  of  all  the  powers  of  the  mind, 
so  that  no  one  either  dominates  or  is  dominated  by 
another.  The  study  of  such  literature  to  the  point  which 
I  have  suggested,  when  you  can  really  sense  it  without 
looking  through  the  pages  of  the  dictionary,  will  give,  as 
I  think,  better  than  anything  else  can  give,  the  ability 
essential  for  professional  success.  In  this  connection  it 
has  been  suggested  that  Latin  is  of  more  importance 
than  Greek.     With  that  point  of  view  I  cannot  agree; 


Law  153 

for  the  purposes  I  have  indicated,  Greek  seems  to  me  to 
be  more  valuable  than  Latin. 

As  social  relations  become  more  complex  and  the 
huge  accumulation  of  material  resources  and  of  the  appara- 
tus of  material  civilization  grows  ever  greater,  so  grows 
the  difficulty  of  attaining  real  knowledge  and  mastery, 
and  so  grows  the  need  of  it.  And  so  also,  the  importance 
of  the  profession  of  the  law  increases  as  an  interpreting 
and  co-ordinating  power.  And  so,  too,  grows  the  neces- 
sity of  a  sound  method  of  classical  training  for  those 
who  would  discharge  the  full  measure  of  service  that  the 
profession  owes  to  society. 


VL    CONCLUDING  REMARKS 

THE  CHAIRMAN,  HON.  LEVI  L.  BARBOUR 
Of  the  Detroit  Bar,  Regent  of  the  University  of  Michigan 

Aside  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  professions,  the 
value  of  the  humanistic  studies  as  making  life  worth 
living  ought  to  be  emphasized.  These  studies  are  of 
more  value  than  any  others  for  the  character  which  they 
give  to  life. 

In  this  country  we  have  made  a  very  grave  mistake  in 
reducing  the  requirements  for  the  bachelor  of  arts  degree 
so  that  almost  any  study,  or  a  half-dozen  miscellaneous 
studies  pursued,  as  the  student  may  desire,  will  entitle 
him  to  this  degree;  that  is,  to  a  reputation  for  knowing 
something  which  he  does  not  know,  and  of  having  earned 
something  that  he  has  not  earned.  I  should  like  to  go 
back  to  the  old  condition  of  things,  when  the  degree  of 
bachelor  of  arts  meant  classical  education. 


SYMPOSIUM  IV 

THE    VALUE    OF    HUMANISTIC,     PARTICULARLY    CLASSICAL, 

STUDIES   AS   A    PREPARATION    FOR   THE    STUDY 

OF   THEOLOGY 

I.    THE  PLACE  OF  GREEK  AND  LATIN  IN  THE  PREP- 
ARATION FOR  THE  MINISTRY 

WILLIAM  DOUGLAS  MACKENZIE,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

President  of  Hartford  Theological  Seminary 

I  count  it  a  matter  of  great  importance  that  this  Con- 
ference has  been  invited  to  discuss  the  question  how  the 
study  of  Greek  and  Latin  is  related  to  preparation  for  the 
Christian  ministry.  It  is  true  that  indeed  the  classical 
department  in  our  schools  and  colleges  deeply  affects  the 
whole  character  and  level,  the  tone  and  quality  of  the 
general  education  of  our  people;  for  it  is  still  held  by  a 
very  large  number  of  men  whose  opinion  we  cannot  afford 
to  ignore,  that  ultimately  the  best  culture  of  any  modern 
nation  must  rest  upon  the  basis  of  Greek  and  Latin 
history  and  literature.  Apart  from  that  wide  topic,  it 
must  be  confessed  that  the  study  of  these  subjects  has  a 
direct  relation  to  the  leading  professions  which  is  of  the 
utmost  importance  to  the  dignity  and  power  of  those 
professions.  But,  above  all,  as  we  shall  see,  the  relation 
of  Greek  and  Latin  to  the  Christian  ministry  is  so  intimate 
and  so  organic  that  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  assert  that  the 
way  in  which  it  is  measured  and  handled  by  the  colleges 
and  seminaries  will  practically  settle  the  future  intellectual 
influence  of  the  Christian  pulpit. 

We  cannot  therefore  discuss  our  subject  adequately 
without  asking  ourselves,  first  of  all.  What  is  the  function 

154 


Theology  155 

of  the  ministry?  There  are  those  who  maintain  that  it 
is  possible  to  carry  on  the  ministry  of  the  gospel  without 
a  classical  training,  and  in  proof  of  this  position  they  are 
able  to  name  many  persons  who  have  occupied  and 
occupy  prominent  positions  as  Christian  preachers,  and 
who  have  brought  many  souls  into  the  Christian  experi- 
ence, who  are  entirely  innocent  of  Latin  and  Greek.  It 
must  be  admitted  quite  frankly  that  for  the  specific  work 
of  evangelism  such  a  training  cannot  be  proved  to  be 
essential.  We  must  also  recognize  that  many  very  useful 
pastorates  have  been  carried  on  by  men  without  that 
kind  and  level  of  education.  But  we  must  be  all  the 
more  careful,  when  these  facts  have  been  admitted,  to 
realize  what  relation  the  ministry  sustains  to  the  life  of 
the  church  as  a  whole,  and,  through  that,  to  the  general 
life  and  culture  of  the  entire  nation.  For  religion  is  no 
mere  secluded  section  of  human  life.  It  rises  and  it 
lives,  it  fights  its  battles  and  wins  or  loses  them  in  close 
contact  and  struggle  with  all  the  other  forces  and  insti- 
tutions of  a  civilized  life.  It  does  not  continue  its  exist- 
ence and  influence  by  mere  spontaneity.  It  requires 
and  demands  the  exercise  of  the  highest  functions  of 
human  nature,  of  imagination  as  well  as  faith,  of  the  dis- 
ciplined mind  as  well  as  the  purified  heart.  As  truly  as 
it  demands  the  secret  agonies  of  repentance,  it  demands 
also  the  outward  glories  of  public  worship  and  the  concrete 
burdens  of  human  service.  Religion  never  will  come  to 
its  own  unless  it  leads  all  the  other  interests  and  forces 
of  civiUzed  man.  It  is  all  or  nothing,  it  is  supreme  or 
least  among  the  complex  conditions  of  human  experience. 
It  carries  in  its  life  and  heart  absolute  authority,  or  its 
voice  is  a  mockery  and  its  claims  a  superstition. 

The  Christian  reUgion  maintains  its  life  through  the 


156  Humanistic  Studies 

continual  assertion  of  its  nature  as  the  supreme  self- 
revelation  of  God,  and  as  carrying  in  itself  a  supreme 
authority  over  the  conscience  and  the  will  of  all  human 
beings.  It  seeks — by  its  very  nature  it  must  die  or  seek 
— to  make  its  spirit  effective  in  the  midst  of  all  human 
interests.  It  must  meet  every  strain  which  is  brought 
to  bear  upon  its  fundamental  claims.  This  the  Christian 
religion  cannot  do  in  the  face  of  the  modern  world  except 
through  men  who  are  trained  for  a  task  sublime  as  this 
task.  Whoever  these  are,  they  must  stand  to  the  com- 
munity as  the  chief  representatives  of  the  Christian  faith, 
its  spokesmen,  its  advocates,  its  intelligent  teachers,  its 
confident  promulgators.  They  must  be  men  who  are 
able  to  face  the  deepest  things  which  Christianity  may 
fear,  and  the  deepest  things  which  Christianity  may  do, 
among  the  wayward  minds  and  the  wayworn  hearts  of 
men.  Moreover,  such  men  as  these  must  stand  in  every 
community.  For  it  is  not  at  a  distance,  by  mere  print- 
ing of  elaborate  arguments  and  dealing  with  scholarly 
situations,  that  this  supremacy  of  the  Christian  gospel 
is  to  be  maintained.  This  work  can  only  be  done  through 
the  lives  of  men  in  contact  with  the  lives  of  men.  This 
religion  cannot  be  content  with  mere  formal  acquiescence, 
with  mere  outward  conformity  to  its  routine  practices. 
It  must  seek  by  its  very  nature  to  penetrate  every  section 
of  the  countr}^  with  all  its  influence,  that  it  may  bring 
every  individual  to  all  his  perfection.  And  in  every 
section  of  a  civilized  land  the  same  battle  must  be  engaged 
in  as  in  every  other  section.  The  educated  are  every- 
where, the  disputers  of  this  world  are  in  every  hamlet 
and  side  street  of  all  this  vast  country.  There  is  no  place 
where  it  is  safe  to  say  that  Christianity  can  successfully 
be  maintained  unless  it  is  fully  represented  by  those  who 


Theology  157 

know  its  nature  and  manifest  its  power  both  in  their 
word  and  in  their  life. 

If  these  things  are  true,  then  they  may  be  summed  up 
in  the  blunt  statement  that  the  Christian  reHgion  cannot 
possibly  retain  moral  and  social  leadership  if  its  minis- 
ters lack  an  intellectual  equipment  which  is  equal  to  that 
required  by  any  calling  in  the  most  highly  civilized 
regions  of  the  world.  The  idea  that  Christianity  can 
conquer  by  means  of  men  who  do  not  know  what  mental 
discipline  is,  who  hope  to  maintain  their  influence  by  a 
piety  that  is  divorced  from  intelligence,  or  a  message 
that  is  delivered  by  intellectual  incompetents,  is  one  of 
the  most  disastrous  which  any  generation  could  inherit 
or  cherish.  The  ministry  must  have  its  schools  in  which 
work  must  be  as  severe  as  in  any  other  professional  school 
in  the  land.  The  pulpits  must  be  occupied  by  men  who 
have  given  themselves  to  specific  and  technical  prepara- 
tion with  as  deep  self-sacrifice,  with  as  real  diligence,  as 
those  who  hope  to  occupy  the  front  places  in  medicine  or 
in  law  or  in  education. 

It  is  in  the  light  of  this  whole  view  of  the  ministry  and 
of  its  preparation  that  I  must  approach  the  specific  task 
which  your  committee  has  assigned  to  me.  What  place, 
then,  shall  the  study  of  Greek  and  Latin  occupy  in  the 
preparation  for  the  ministry? 

First  as  to  Greek.  The  Christian  religion  not  merely 
arose  out  of  the  Hebrew  religion  (and  therefore  every 
theological  student  ought  to  wish  to  know  a  little  Hebrew), 
but  in  a  world  whose  intellectual  life  was  deeply  saturated 
with  the  influences  of  the  Greek  language  and  literature. 
Greek,  in  fact,  was  the  lingua  franca  of  the  world  at  that 
time,  and  hence  we  find  that  the  writings  of  the  New 
Testament   are   all   preserved   to   us   in  that   language. 


158  Humanistic  Studies 

Traditions  that  one  or  more  originally  existed  in  Aramaic 
are  probably  true,  but  the  originals  are  entirely  lost,  so 
necessary  was  it  that  if  they  were  to  gain  permanent 
place  and  influence  they  should  promptly  be  translated 
and  circulated  as  Greek  documents.  Even  those  apos- 
tolic letters  which  were  addressed  to  the  church  in  Rome 
itself  and  to  that  other  church  in  the  Roman  colony  of 
Philippi  were  in  the  Greek  language.  It  is  further  to 
be  noted  that  early  Christian  literature  emanating  from 
the  city  of  Rome  was  not  in  Latin,  but  in  Greek — as 
witness  the  Epistle  of  the  Roman  Clement.  It  has  on 
apparently  good  grounds  been  concluded  that  down  to 
the  latter  half  of  the  second  century  the  language  used 
in  the  life  and  worship  of  the  Christian  church  at  Rome 
was  not  Latin,  but  Greek. 

Many  problems  have  always  been  felt  to  exist  regard- 
ing the  kind  of  Greek  which  we  find  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment literature.  It  is  not  until  very  recent  days  that 
material  has  been  found  for  an  approximate  answer  to 
that  question;  but  it  is  becoming  clearer  every  year, 
through  a  closer  study  of  inscriptions  and  from  writings 
disentombed  in  Egypt,  that  the  Greek  which  is  used  in 
this  New  Testament  is  not  merely  Attic  Greek  modified 
or  degraded,  but  is  the  vernacular  Greek  of  that  period. 
The  first  preachers  of  the  gospel  of  Christ,  by  the  divine 
instinct  which  has  lived  ever  since  in  the  church,  especially 
in  its  great  periods  of  missionary  activity,  addressed 
themselves  directly  to  the  people  in  the  language  which 
the  people  knew  and  used.  The  clearing-up  of  some  of 
these  facts  has  added  new  zest  to  the  scholarly  investi- 
gation of  this  aspect  of  the  Greek  language,  and  may 
throw  new  light  upon  various  aspects  of  New  Testament 
study. 


Theology  159 

In  all  this  the  older  apologists  used  to  see  the  work  of 
a  divine  providence.  In  the  fulness  of  time,  it  was  said, 
God  sent  his  Son  into  the  world  and  that  fulness,  that 
fitness  of  all  the  circumstances,  included  this  fashioning 
and  perfecting  of  a  language  better  adapted  to  record 
and  express  the  Christian  facts  and  truths  than  any 
other  which  the  world  had  known.  If  many  of  us  cannot 
today,  with  the  same  conscientious  confidence,  insist 
upon  that  argument  as  a  piece  of  apologetics,  we  can  yet 
recognize  the  actual  and  living  importance  for  the  Chris- 
tian religion  of  the  fact  that,  through  its  origin  and  per- 
manent connection  with  the  Greek  language,  it  was 
brought  into  a  living  connection  with  the  whole  mar- 
velous literature  of  the  Greeks.  It  is  one  of  the  most 
significant  of  all  facts  that  when  this  religion  began  to 
take  its  place  in  the  large  life  of  the  Graeco-Roman  world, 
and  when  its  theologians  were  compelled  to  face  the 
fundamental  intellectual  problems  which  it  presented, 
then,  as  at  the  present  day,  they  found  in  that  most 
highly  developed  philosophical  language  of  antiquity 
keen  weapons  ready  to  their  hand. 

It  follows  from  all  these  facts  that  the  thorough  inves- 
tigation of  the  New  Testament  in  its  history  and  mean- 
ings must  forever  rest  on  a  knowledge  of  the  Greek 
language.  He  who  knows  it  not  is  shut  off  from  a  personal 
consideration  of  the  deepest  problems  concerning  the 
origins  of  the  faith  which  he  professes. 

To  turn  now  to  the  Latin  language,  we  must  observe 
that  toward  the  end  of  the  second  century,  in  northern 
Africa,  there  arose  that  fierce  Christian  spirit,  Tertullian 
of  Carthage.  He  it  was  who  really  began  the  history  of 
Latin  Christian  literature,  and  in  his  rugged  paragraphs 
and  sometimes  tumultuous  vocabulary  we  seem  to  feel 


IGO  Humanistic  Studies 

the  burden  of  the  task  laid  upon  the  beginners  of  that 
history.  It  is  no  easy  thing  to  adapt  a  language  to  a 
view  of  human  nature  and  its  eternal  relations,  which  is 
so  vast,  so  subtle,  so  complex  as  the  Christian  view.  It 
requires  time,  even  as  the  missionaries  of  today  discover, 
to  refashion  the  great  words  of  any  language  that  they 
may  move,  as  it  were,  at  home  in  the  universe  which  is 
opened  by  the  Christian  faith  for  the  human  spirit. 
From  that  time  forth,  Latin  gradually  and  rapidly  became 
the  official  language  of  the  church,  and  the  great  theologies 
came  to  be  written  in  that  tongue.  As  the  Roman 
Empire,  now  with  the  church  at  its  heart,  spread  over 
Europe,  it  carried,  for  all  the  purposes  of  church  and  of 
state,  the  Latin  language  w^th  it.  It  is  true  that  in 
southern  Europe — nay,  even  in  Italy  itself — the  real 
Latin  disappeared,  and  was  replaced  by  the  various 
vernacular  tongues  which,  in  their  turn  and  at  a  much 
later  period,  had  to  be  reconquered  for  the  purposes  both 
of  literature  and  of  religion.  But  down  to  the  time  of 
the  Reformation,  Latin  continued  to  be  the  prevailing 
language  in  the  higher  life  of  all  civilized  peoples  in  Europe- 
In  that  tongue  they  wrote  their  science  and  their  philos- 
ophy, they  carried  on  the  amenities  and  the  burdens  of 
diplomacy  and  government,  they  -recorded  their  biog- 
raphies and  histories.  In  that  tongue  they  taught  all 
the  peoples  to  say  their  prayers  and  to  build  their  theolo- 
gies. This  language  it  was  which  became  the  instrument 
for  keen  dialectics  of  scholasticism  and  much  of  the  deep- 
souled  music  of  mysticism. 

When  the  Renaissance  arose  there  was  a  rediscovery 
of  the  ancient  literature  of  Greece,  and  over  Europe  it 
spread  its  flowers  and  its  song,  breaking  in  upon  the 
monotony  of  the  heavier  tongue  of  the  Latins  with  its 


Theology  161 

lissome  grace,  its  keen  discriminations,  and  its  close-knit 
vigor.  But  the  Renaissance  was  accompanied  by  the 
Reformation.  The  Reformation  brought  about  a  still 
greater  change  in  the  uses  of  language,  for  the  effort  was 
made  to  give  the  Scriptures  to  the  peoples  of  Europe  in 
their  own  tongues — the  languages  of  the  home  and  the 
street  and  the  marketplace.  In  spite  of  this  strenuous 
missionary  effort  which,  of  course,  began  soon  to  produce 
its  appointed  results  in  the  great  literatures  of  those 
modern  tongues,  the  discussions  of  the  theologians  con- 
tinued to  be  conducted  in  the  Latin  language.  Hence 
it  is  that  so  large  a  part  of  the  theology  of  the  Reformation 
period  is  inaccessible  to  those  who  are  unable  to  use  this 
language,  while  many  of  the  most  important  aspects  of 
ecclesiastical  as  of  secular  history  in  all  the  Christian 
centuries  lie  beyond  their  reach. 

In  view  of  all  these  facts,  it  seems  almost  needless  to 
assert  that  no  one  can  move  easily  in  the  region  of  theo- 
logical discussion  nor  read  very  far  into  the  history  of  the 
Christian  church  to  whom  the  simplest  Latin  is  utterly 
unknown.  I  know  that  there  are  those  who  feel  per- 
suaded that,  through  translations  of  the  Scriptures  and 
through  reading  of  modern  theological  books,  they  can 
obtain  all  that  is  necessary  for  the  conduct  of  their  minis- 
try. That  depends  entirely  upon  what  their  ideal  is. 
There  are  deep  and  curious  psychological  results  pro- 
duced by  ignorance  as  well  as  knowledge,  and  many 
paltry  and  viewless  paths  are  trod  because  a  man  has  to 
avoid  certain  topics  and  cannot  enter  upon  certain  courses 
of  reading  which  he  would  naturally  have  entered  upon 
if  he  had  possessed  even  a  little  better  equipment. 
The  tendency,  as  I  believe,  of  those  who  do  not  possess 
these  weapons  of  a  full  Christian  culture  must  ever  be 


1()2  Humanistic  Studies 

to  read  what  is  easier,  to  avoid  those  greater  works  which 
confront  one  on  so  many  of  their  pages  with  words  printed 
in  Greek  or  with  quotations  from  Latin,  with  references 
to  phases  of  history  which  only  they  are  Hkely  to  know 
who  have  studied  Greek  and  Greek  history,  Latin  and 
the  history  of  Rome.  Thus,  as  I  beheve,  the  lack  of 
Greek  and  Latin  does  of  itself  tend  to  lower  the  general 
authority  of  that  portion  of  the  ministry  which  is  without 
them.  Many  a  question  the  young  college  men  in  their 
churches  could  ask  which  must  bring  the  blush  to  their 
faces  because  they  know  not  these  two  things.  Many 
an  address  must  be  made  which  shall  be  poorer  because 
they  cannot  speak  with  confidence  on  points  which  a  very 
little  Latin  or  Greek  would  enable  them  to  determine 
with  somewhat  of  authority. 

I  am  aware  of  the  possible  argument  that  we  cannot 
expect  the  average  minister  to  be  a  thorough  classical 
scholar.  And  I  admit  at  once  that  the  average  ability 
may  not  be  high  enough  for  such  excellence,  the  average 
diligence  may  be  unequal  to  its  maintenance,  and  the 
average  tasks  may  interfere  much  with  its  constant  cul- 
tivation. But,  on  the  other  hand,  I  may  urge  a  view 
of  the  matter  which  I  think  affords  basis  for  a  complete 
answer  to  that  difficulty.  It  is  ever  idle  to  discuss  a 
concrete  situation  in  terms  of  an  impossible  ideal,  and  I 
wish  today  above  all  to  be  practical. 

If  anyone  will  look  calmly  and  without  prejudice 
over  the  field  of  work  which  is  being  carried  on  by  those 
churches  in  this  or  other  lands  which  insist  that  every 
minister  shall  have  learned  some  Greek  and  Latin,  he  will 
find  that,  as  a  result,  there  are  various  grades  of  attain- 
ment in  these  languages  and  that  each  of  these  has  its 
real  value  and  function.     First,  there  are  those  whose 


Theology  163 

acquaintance  with  and  taste  for  classical  learning  is  such 
that  they  are  fitted  to  become  specialists  in  this  region. 
For  them  it  is  possible  to  do  original  work  in  the  investi- 
gation of  sources,  in  the  discussion  of  minute  linguistic 
problems,  in  the  discrimination  of  one  Greek  usage  from 
another,  in  the  power  to  date  a  Latin  document  by  the 
quality  of  the  Latin.  The  church  needs  this  kind  of 
work  for  its  large  and  varied  life,  and  hence  it  must 
continue  to  call  upon  the  preparatory  schools  and  colleges 
to  prepare  such  men  for  its  service.  I  fear  that  we  in 
this  country  hardly  realize  how  much  opportunity  there 
is  in  this  direction,  and  how  great  a  leeway  American 
scholarship  needs  to  make  up.  One  is  glad  to  be  able  to 
say  that  in  recent  years  much  work  of  the  best  kind  has 
been  done  at  some  American  institutions  by  our  younger 
scholars  in  this  field.  It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that 
there  is  no  fresh  ground  to  break  either  in  biblical  study 
or  in  the  general  field  of  church  history.  The  discovery 
of  ancient  manuscripts  of  all  kinds,  the  closer  co-ordina- 
tion of  various  fields  of  investigation,  in  economics  as 
well  as  politics,  in  the  minutiae  of  literary  scrutiny  as 
well  as  in  the  measuring  of  large  movements  of  thought, 
is  adding  fresh  light  to  our  understanding  both  of  the 
institutional  history  of  the  church  and  of  the  significance 
of  its  great  doctrinal  discussions.  Much  of  this  work 
can  be  done  only  by  those  who  are  trained  philologists 
and  who  bring  to  the  investigation  of  history  the  expert 
linguist's  tastes  as  well  as  the  grasp  of  the  philosopher 
and  the  insight  of  the  reUgious  man. 

In  the  second  place,  we  must,  however,  remember 
that  there  is  a  place  for  that  much  larger  number  of  men 
whose  tastes  are  somewhat  different,  who  are  able  and 
glad  to  acquire  a  reading  knowledge  of  the  classical  Ian- 


164  Humanistic  Studies 

guages  without  concentrating  attention  upon  the  gram- 
marian's interests.  Here  there  is  a  wide  range  of  possi- 
bility— from  the  man  who  reads  any  Latin  and  Greek 
with  ease,  and  prefers  to  do  all  his  work  in  the  original, 
down  to  the  man  who  reads  them  faithfully  but  with 
difficulty,  who,  therefore,  depends  largely  upon  transla- 
tions, but  who,  when  he  comes  to  critical  decisions,  is 
careful  always  to  compare  the  translations  with  the 
original.  There  are  great  varieties  of  power  between 
these  two  extremes,  and  a  very  large  amount  of  the  best 
work  in  several  theological  departments — biblical,  his- 
torical, and  theological — is  today  being  done  by  those  who 
have  this  equipment  in  some  one  of  its  varying  degrees. 
And  one  must  recognize  that  this  is  necessary,  for  there 
are  various  departments  of  theological  investigation 
which  require  the  use  of  quite  other  languages,  which 
take  men  into  the  study  of  other  periods  than  those 
covered  by  Greek  and  Latin  writings.  In  cases  like 
these,  expert  use  of  the  classical  tongues  is  not  easily 
maintained.  They  grow  rusty,  translate  laboriously, 
and  feel  that  they  are  losing  time  if  they  depend  merely 
upon  their  own  slow  progress  through  the  pages  of  their 
authors.  For  such  men  the  use  of  translations  is  not 
only  allowable  but  necessary,  and  some  of  the  most  impor- 
tant books  in  many  fields  have  come  from  such  scholars. 
I  believe  that  a  far  larger  number  of  our  ministers  ought 
to  belong  to  some  grade  in  this  class.  If  they  have 
had  the  foundations  well  laid  in  school  and  college,  if 
they  have  been  inspired  in  the  seminary  to  cultivate  the 
use  of  Latin  and  Greek  in  preparation  for  their  classroom 
work,  if  they  have  formed  a  habit  of  frequently  reading 
even  a  little  in  those  languages,  of  never  depending 
merely  upon  translations  but,  where  possible,  of  exer- 


Theology  165 

cising  themselves  in  direct  and  personal  translation  and, 
at  important  points,  checking  the  best  translators  by  com- 
parison with  the  original,  they  will  not  only  maintain 
through  life  a  reasonable  knowledge  of  the  classical  tongues 
but  will  thereby  be  able  to  go  to  the  fountain-heads  of 
philosophical  and  theological  history  for  themselves. 
They  need  not  merely  depend  upon  interpretations  and 
reports  of  other  scholars,  but  may  have  that  noble  joy 
of  comparing  these  directly  and  personally  with  those 
ancient  writers  who  are  under  discussion. 

But  there  is  a  third  class,  consisting  of  those  who  have 
never  gained  a  power  of  reading  the  classics  easily;  but 
who,  being  faithful  and  diligent  men,  gained  their  degree 
in  both  languages.  They  realize  the  great  advantage  of 
the  measure  of  knowledge  they  have  won.  They  rejoice 
that  quotations  from  Latin,  and  Greek  references  to 
classical  literature  and  history,  are  not  all  "blind"  to 
them.  Such  men  will  rejoice  to  have  on  their  shelves 
the  best  modern  commentaries  on  both  the  Old  and  the 
New  Testaments.  They  will  ever  keep  up  the  study  of 
the  New  Testament  by  the  use  of  commentaries  which 
treat  the  Greek  text.  They  will  rejoice  to  get  as  close 
to  the  originals  as  they  can,  and  will  be  stimulated  to 
buy  books  that  deal  directly  with  the  sources.  This 
measure  of  scholarship  and  ideal  of  practice  is  within  the 
easy  reach  of  practically  every  minister  in  the  land.  It 
is  by  no  means  to  be  despised.  It  is  a  measure  of  power 
which  sets  a  man  far  beyond  all  his  brethren  who,  however 
naturally  able  or  pious,  are  without  the  knowledge  which 
he  possesses  of  these  languages.  The  least  in  the  king- 
dom of  God  is  greater  than  all  those  without,  and  he  who 
is  able  to  use  Greek  and  Latin  in  the  degree  I  have 
described    occupies    always,    in    discussion,    and    in    the 


lOCt  Humanistic  Studies 

consultation  of  books,  and  in  the  judgment  of  contro- 
versies, a  position  such  as  even  abler  men  cannot  hold, 
whose  minds  are  dead  to  these  languages.  I  cannot 
strongly  enough  insist  upon  this  point  because,  while  it 
is  the  lowest  part  of  the  ideal  I  am  setting  before  you,  it  is 
one  which  brings  within  every  minister's  reach  whole 
ranges  of  theological  work  which  otherwise  he  would 
never  think  of  reading.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  there  is 
hardly  one,  for  instance,  of  the  excellent  series  of  Inter- 
national Commentaries  which  does  not  imply  some 
knowledge  of  Greek  and  Latin.  Even  translated  com- 
mentaries on  the  New  Testament,  like  that  of  Meyer, 
imply  the  power  to  turn  the  pages  of  the  Greek  Testa- 
ment. No  man  can  fruitfully  read  the  translation  of 
Harnack's  History  of  Dogma  who  does  not  know  these 
languages.  He  cannot  follow  the  discussions  on  the 
authorship  of  the  New  Testament  books,  the  history  of 
New  Testament  times,  without  feeling  at  every  step  his 
deficiencies  if  he  is  unable  to  refer  to  the  quotations  or  to 
follow  even  sparse  references  to  Greek  and  Latin  words. 
The  tendency  for  such  a  man  must  always  be  to  purchase 
and  read  books  which  belong  to  the  more  ephemeral  class 
— those  which  are  avowedly  popular,  whether  in  exposition 
or  in  theological  discussion.  His  mind  moves,  therefore, 
ahvays  on  smooth  waters,  and  goes  surely  and  easily  to 
sleep. 

His  imagination  is  unenkindled  by  the  rugged  struggle 
with  big  problems.  His  faith  is  unbraced  by  conscious 
facing  of  the  strongest  winds  of  criticism.  A  large  num- 
ber of  weaklings  in  the  pulpit  are  men  who  might  have 
become  strong  and  vigorous  in  their  intellectual  and 
spiritual  life,  if  their  equipment  had  been  sufficient  to 
make  them  appreciate  the  important  works,  to  buy  one 


Theology  167 

first-class  commentary  rather  than  three  or  four  common- 
place productions  of  respectable  piety.  Men  like  these 
are  the  victims  of  every  wind  of  doctrine  that  blows  in 
any  direction.  Some  of  them  take  refuge  in  the  arid 
regions  of  narrowness,  of  a  conservatism  that  is  bitter 
because  uninstructed.  Or  else  they  yield  themselves 
to  the  flatulent  food  of  the  latest  fad,  if  only  the  writer 
of  a  book  or  a  series  of  books  is  possessed  of  a  smooth 
style  and  great  self-confidence,  if  only  he  uses  the  word 
"new"  for  his  philosophy  or  his  psychology  or  his  theology, 
if  only  he  insists  often  enough  and  subtly  enough  that  he 
who  does  not  see  these  things  does  not  see  anything  at  all. 
What  we  need  today  in  our  ministry  is  a  great  body  of 
men  who  know  enough  of  the  past  to  understand  the  real 
problems  of  the  present.  And  we  cannot  have  such  a 
body  of  men  unless  they  are  wiUing  to  make  the  sacrifices 
of  toil  and  patient  study  to  acquire  those  languages  which 
will  open  the  most  important  discussions  of  the  past  and 
the  present  to  their  eyes. 

I  feel,  of  course,  with  you  all,  not  only  that  this  ideal 
is  necessary,  but  that  it  is  difficult  to  attain.  I  have 
heard,  not  so  long  ago,  of  ministers,  in  conversation  with 
theological  students,  who  sneered  at  the  amount  of  atten- 
tion which  was  demanded  by  their  teachers  to  the  lan- 
guages of  Scripture  and  Christian  history,  saying  that 
they  had  been  in  the  ministry  for  so  many  years  and  had 
had  not  found  these  things  at  all  necessary.  The  down- 
drag  of  a  low  ideal,  when  it  exists  throughout  a  vast  body 
of  men,  is  a  very  powerful  force  and  one  which  it  is 
extremely  difficult  to  counteract.  It  will  take  long  to 
spread  through  the  churches  of  America — nay,  even 
throughout  the  ministry  of  America — the  ideals  of  min- 
isterial scholarship  which  I  have  so  briefly  and  slightly 


108  Humanistic  Studies 

sketched  above.  For  the  better  day  that  is  coming  we 
must  depend  very  largel.y  upon  the  spirit  which  emanates 
from  the  classical  teachers  in  our  schools  and  colleges, 
and  the  methods  which  are  employed  in  our  theological 
seminaries.  I  believe  that  one  of  the  greatest  forces 
which  can  be  employed  bj'  teachers  in  public  schools  to 
induce  boj's  to  begin  the  study  of  classics  and  to  carry 
it  on  enthusiastically,  is  continually,  freshly,  interestingly, 
to  argue  and  to  prove  and  to  illustrate  the  position  that 
the  study  of  classics  is  necessary,  not  merely  for  a  noble 
general  culture,  but  for  definite  and  professional  power 
in  the  great  careers  of  life.  Among  these  careers  not  only 
statesmanship  and  law  and  medicine  and  education,  but 
the  ministry  of  the  church  of  Christ  must  be  named. 
It  ought  not  to  be  hard  for  any  teacher  of  Latin  or  Greek 
in  any  high  school  in  the  country  to  get  sufficient  grasp 
of  the  relation  of  his  language  to  these  professions  to 
enable  him  thus  to  influence  his  scholars,  to  make  them 
feel  that  these  are  not  dead  but  ever-living  languages, 
not  useless  lumber  but  the  living  fountain  of  fresh  inspira- 
tions, and  that  no  nation  can,  in  its  culture,  in  its  states- 
manship, in  its  professional  careers,  stand  in  the  front 
rank  which  does  not,  through  these  languages,  relate 
itself  to  the  greatest  achievements  of  the  past. 

What  is  said  here  of  the  school  must  apply  all  the  more 
powerfully  to  the  college.  I  believe  that  the  sources  of 
supply  for  the  ministry  can  be  opened  by  the  spirit  of  the 
college  professors  of  America.  It  is  absolutely  certain 
that  in  college  many  men  lose  an  earlier  desire  to  enter 
the  ministry,  and  this  through  the  mere  fact  that  the 
ministry  as  an  ideal  form  of  human  service  and  as  an 
obligation  of  the  higher  life  does  not  seem  to  have  the 
respect  of  their  teachers.     I  think  that  colleges  and  uni- 


Theology  169 

versities  where  the  truly  broad  spirit  reigns  may,  without 
any  loss  of  self-respect,  without  any  taint  of  sectarian 
spirit,  so  arrange  their  courses,  so  make  suggestions  to 
those  who  are  looking  forward  to  the  ministry,  as  to 
encourage  such  men  to  undertake  fields  of  study  that  will 
fit  them  for  their  future  work  in  the  seminary  and  in  the 
church.  By  this  I  do  not  mean  that  any  seminary  work 
should  be  done  at  college.  Attempts  to  do  it  have,  as  a 
rule,  proved  a  failure.  And  in  any  case  the  man  who 
looks  forward  to  the  ministry  ought  to  take  the  broadest 
and  strongest  college  course  which  is  possible.  But 
undoubtedly  there  are  departments  of  study  which  those 
looking  forward  to  the  ministrj^  ought  to  pursue,  when 
we  take  the  broad  view  of  the  ministry  which  I  have 
suggested  today.  I  believe  that  Latin  and  Greek  ought 
to  be  studied  by  such  men  through  the  whole  four  years 
of  their  college  course,  so  that,  having  had  eight  years 
in  these  languages,  they  can  go  to  the  seminary  able  to 
use  them  with  some  degree  of  comfort,  and  able  to  appre- 
ciate their  value  as  soon  as  they  enter  upon  biblical  study 
and  the  investigations  of  church  history.  And  in  the 
seminary  these  languages  ought  to  be  used.  No  year 
should  pass  in  which  the  men  are  not  encouraged  to  read 
in  the  Greek  Testament  and  the  Greek  Fathers,  as  well  as 
in  Latin  theology.  Thus  eleven  years  of  work  ought  to 
send  the  average  man  out  into  the  ministry  of  America 
with  an  equipment  which  shall  give  him  a  position  in 
every  community  he  enters,  as  a  man  of  sound  education, 
of  real  and  thorough  preparation  for  his  great  career. 

I  trust  that,  as  a  teacher  of  theology,  I  am  not  deaf  to 
the  clamant  voices  which  appeal  to  us  for  men  who  are 
trained  to  meet  a  living  situation  and  to  deal  with  the 
often  crushing  burdens  of  our  modern  world.     It  is  in  the 


170  Humanistic  Studies 

very  name  of  those  voices,  with  their  pathos  in  my  heart, 
that  I  yearn  for  a  ministry  in  our  land  which  stands  high 
enough  to  measure,  and  is  strong  enough  to  grapple 
with  their  task.  Ultimately  a  nation  is  made  by  its 
ideals,  and  social  wrongs  are  permanently  corrected,  not 
by  superficial  rearrangement  of  outer  things,  but  by  deep 
regenerations  of  spirit  and  desire.  What  we  need  is  the 
leadership  of  men  upon  whom  the  Christian  view  of  God 
and  the  world  has  shed  its  light.  It  is  no  child's  play, 
it  is  no  idler's  listless  and  perfunctory  work,  it  is  a  trained 
man's  life-work  to  make  that  Christian  view  and  the 
experience  which  lies  behind  it  prevail  in  his  own  char- 
acter that  it  may  prevail  over  the  character  of  his  flock 
and  over  the  history  of  a  nation.  The  minister  of  the 
Christian  religion  is,  alike  by  the  nature  of  that  religion 
and  the  nature  of  his  own  relation  to  it,  committed  to  the 
position  of  leadership  in  the  community.  Woe  to  the 
man  who  undertakes  it  with  mind  untrained  and  will 
unbraced  for  a  life  of  intellectual  and  spiritual  labor! 
But  blessed  is  the  nation  and  secure  is  its  future  whose 
ministry  is  composed  of  men  who,  to  the  zeal  of  the  evan- 
gelist, and  the  sacrifice  of  the  pulpit,  and  the  practical 
wisdom  of  the  leader,  add  the  wisdom  and  the  sacrifice 
and  the  zeal  of  the  trained  teacher.  Today  the  church  of 
Christ  needs  men  possessed  of  all  these  gifts  and  acquire- 
ments, possessed  even  of  that  culture  "to  make  reason 
and  the  will  of  God  prevail"  amid  the  free  and  tumul- 
tuous life  of  our  modern  world. 


Theology  171 

II.    THE  VALUE  TO  THE  CLERGYMAN  OF  TRAINING 
IN  THE  CLASSICS 

REV.  A.  J.  NOCK 

St.  Joseph's  Church,  Detroit 

The  other  night,  in  company  with  an  eminent  expert 
in  social  problems,  I  had  the  privilege  of  hearing  Mr.  Post 
lecture  on  the  witch's  work  that  the  railroads  are  making 
with  our  political  institutions.  As  we  left  the  building, 
the  first  unmistakable  breath  of  spring  in  the  air  brought 
with  it  a  sudden,  disquieting  flood  of  recollections  of  my 
home  in  the  Virginia  mountains,  and  there  occurred  to 
me  at  once  the  pensive  and  graceful  lines  from  Virgil's 
Georgics:  "0  for  the  fields,  and  the  streams  of  Spercheios, 
and  the  hills  animated  by  the  romping  of  the  Lacaenian 
girls,  the  hills  of  Taygetus!"  The  social  practitioner, 
who  regards  my  favorite  pursuits  with  an  eye  of  gentle 
toleration — thinking  them  a  harmless  means  of  keeping 
inefficient  and  sentimental  persons  from  meddling  under- 
foot of  those  like  himself  who  are  bearing  the  burden  and 
heat  of  the  day — took  my  arm  and  said,  "  I  suppose  now, 
your  way  out  of  all  these  troubles  with  the  railroads 
would  be  to  put  Mr.  Harriman  and  Mr.  Pierpont  Morgan 
to  reading  Virgil's  Georgics.'^  I  had  considerable  satis- 
faction in  telling  him  that  he  was  not  much  more  than 
half  wrong. 

The  reply  was  not  dictated  solely  by  my  own  pre- 
possessions. The  function  of  the  Christian  minister  is  to 
recommend  religion  as  the  principal  means  of  making 
the  will  of  God  prevail  in  all  the  relations  of  human 
society.  He  promotes  the  practice  of  the  discipline  of 
Jesus  as  the  highest  mode  of  spiritual  exercise  looking 
toward  human  perfection.  But  religion  is  an  inward 
motion,  a  distinct  form  of  purely  spiritual  activity;    not 


172  Humanistic  Studies 

ail  intellectual  jirocess,  an  external  behavior,  or  a  series 
of  formal  observances.  The  final  truth  of  religion  is 
poetic  truth,  not  scientific  truth;  in  fact,  with  sheer 
scientific  truth  religion  has  very  little  vital  concern. 
The  Christian  minister,  then,  has  his  chief  interest  in 
recommending  a  special  mode  of  spiritual  activity,  in 
interpreting  a  special  mode  of  poetic  truth.  But  his 
experience  bears  witness  that  the  general  must  precede 
the  special.  Before  one  may  hope  to  do  much  with  a 
special  mode  of  spiritual  activity  like  religion,  at  least 
some  notion  of  spiritual  activity  in  general  must  have 
made  its  Avay.  Before  one  may  hope  to  do  much  with 
a  special  mode  of  poetic  truth  like  the  truth  of  rehgion, 
at  least  some  sense  of  the  validity  and  worth  of  poetic 
truth  in  general  must  be  set  up.  Here  it  may  be  seen 
how  distinctly  progress  in  religion  is  related  to  progress 
in  culture— I  do  not  say  progress  in  education,  for  the 
recent  changes  in  educational  aims  and  ideals  make  of 
education  a  very  different  thing  from  culture;  the  recent 
revolution  in  educational  processes  compels  us  to  differ- 
entiate these  very  sharply  from  the  works  and  ways  of 
culture.  Education,  at  present,  is  chiefly  a  process  of 
acquiring  and  using  instrumental  knowledge.  Its  highest 
concern  is  with  scientific  truth,  and  its  ends  are  the  ends 
of  scientific  truth.  Culture,  on  the  other  hand,  is  chiefly 
a  process  of  acquiring  and  using  formative  knowledge: 
and  while  culture  is,  of  course,  concerned  with  scientific 
truth,  its  highest  concern  is  with  poetic  truth.  Culture 
prizes  scientific  truth,  it  respects  instrumental  knowledge; 
it  seeks  to  promote  these,  where  necessary,  as  indispen- 
sable and  appointed  means  to  a  great  end;  but  culture 
resolutely  puts  aside  every  temptation  to  rest  upon  these 
as  ends  in  themselves.     Culture  looks  steadily  onward 


Theology  173 

from  instrumental  knowledge  to  formative  knowledge, 
from  scientific  truth  to  poetic  truth.  The  end  of  culture 
is  the  establishment  of  right  views  of  life  and  right 
demands  on  life  or,  in  a  word,  civilization,  by  which  we 
mean  the  humane  life,  Hved  to  the  highest  power  by  as 
many  persons  as  possible. 

Because  material  well-being  is  the  indispensable  basis 
of  civihzation,  the  more  thoughtless  among  us  are  apt 
to  use  the  w^ord  civilization  only  in  a  very  restricted  and 
artificial  sense.  Our  newspapers  especially  appear 
to  think  that  the  quality  of  civilization  is  determined  by 
being  very  rich,  having  plenty  of  physical  luxuries,  com- 
forts, and  conveniences,  doing  a  very  great  volume  of 
business,  maintaining  ample  facilities  for  education,  and 
having  everyone  able  to  read  and  write.  The  civiliza- 
tion of  a  community,  however,  is  determined  by  no  such 
things  as  these,  but  rather  by  the  power  and  volume  of 
the  humane  hfe  existing  there — the  humane  hfe,  having 
its  roots  struck  deep  in  material  w^ell-being,  indeed,  but 
proceeding  as  largely  and  as  faithfully  as  possible  under 
the  guidance  of  poetic  truth,  and  increasingly  charac- 
terized by  profound  and  disinterested  spiritual  activity. 
Thus  it  is  possible  for  a  community  to  enjoy  ample  well- 
being,  and  yet  precisely  the  right  criticism  upon  its  pre- 
tensions to  be  that  it  is  really  not  half  civilized — that 
not  half  its  people  are  leading  a  kind  of  life  that  in  any 
reason  or  conscience  can  be  called  humane.  Let  us 
imagine,  say,  a  community  whose  educational  institu- 
tions deal  in  nothing  but  instrumental  knowledge  and 
recognize  no  truth  that  is  not  scientific  truth;  with  all  its 
people  able  to  read  and  write  indeed,  yet  with  a  very 
small  proportion  of  what  they  read  worth  reading  and 
of  what  they  write  worth  writing;    with  its  social  life 


174  Humanistic  Studies 

heavily  overspread  with  the  blight  of  hardness  and 
hideousness;  with  those  who  have  had  most  experience 
of  the  beneficence  of  material  well-being  displaying  no 
mark  of  quickened  spiritual  activity,  but  rather  every- 
where the  outward  and  visible  sign  of  an  inward  and 
spiritual  dulness,  enervation,  and  vulgarity;  to  apply 
the  term  civilization  to  anything  as  alien  to  the  humane 
life,  as  remote  from  the  ideal  of  human  perfection,  as 
this,  seems  to  us  unnatural  and  shocking.  In  such  a 
community,  no  doubt,  all  manner  of  philanthropic  and 
humanitarian  enterprise  may  abound;  what  we  now- 
adays call  social  Christianity,  practical  Christianity, 
may  abound  there.  We  do  not  underestimate  these; 
their  value  is  great,  their  rewards  are  great;  but  the 
assumption  so  regularly  made,  that  these  in  themselves 
are  sufficient  indication  of  a  chaste  and  vigorous  spiritual 
activity  on  the  part  of  those  who  originate  and  promote 
them  is,  in  the  view  of  culture,  manifestly  unsound. 
There  is  much  room  just  now,  we  believe,  for  a  searching 
exposition  of  Article  XIII,  "Of  Good  Works  Done  before 
Justification."  We  of  the  ministry,  therefore,  must 
keep  insisting  that,  as  our  concern  is  purely  with  the  pro- 
cesses and  activities  of  the  spirit,  only  so  far  forth  as  these 
things  represent  the  fruit  of  the  spirit  can  we  give  them 
our  interest. 

The  Christian  minister,  then,  is  interested  in  civiliza- 
tion, in  the  humane  hfe;  because  the  special  form  of 
spiritual  activity  which  he  recommends  is  related  to  the 
humane  life  much  as  the  humane  Ufe  is  related  to  material 
well-being.  He  is  interested  in  the  humane  life  for 
himself,  because  he  must  live  this  life  if  he  hopes  to  pre- 
possess others  in  its  favor.  And  here  comes  in  the  ground 
of  our  plea  that  Greek  and  Latin  literature  may  be  restored 


Theology  175 

and  popularized.  One  makes  progress  in  the  humane 
life  by  the  only  way  that  one  can  make  progress  in  any- 
thing— by  attending  to  it,  by  thinking  about  it,  by  having 
continually  before  one  the  most  notable  models  of  the 
humane  life.  And  of  these  available  models  we  find  so 
large  a  proportion  furnished  to  us  in  the  literature  of 
Greece  and  Rome  as  to  force  upon  us  the  conviction  that 
in  our  efforts  to  exemplify  and  promote  the  humane  life 
we  simply  cannot  do  without  this  literature.  The 
friends  of  education  as  it  now  is  keep  insisting  that 
citizens  should  be  trained  to  be  useful  men  of  their  time, 
men  who  do  things,  men  who  can  develop  our  natural 
and  commercial  resources,  carry  our  material  well-being 
on  to  a  yet  higher  degree  of  abundance  and  security,  and 
play  a  winning  game  at  politics.  For  these  purposes, 
they  tell  us,  instrumental  knowledge  and  scientific  truth 
are  the  only  things  worth  knowing.  We  content  our- 
selves with  remarking,  simply,  It  may  be  so;  but  with 
all  this  we,  at  any  rate,  can  do  nothing.  The  worst  of 
such  justifications  is  that,  like  Mr.  Roosevelt's  specious 
and  fantastic  plea  for  the  strenuous  life,  they  are  addressed 
to  a  public  that  needs  them  least.  There  is  small  danger 
that  interest  in  anything  making  for  material  well-being,  for 
the  development  of  our  commerce  and  industrial  pursuits, 
will  fail  for  a  long  time  to  come.  As  for  politics,  states- 
men trained  on  instrumental  knowledge  may  well  be  instru- 
mental statesmen,  such  as  ours  are;  and  these,  too,  appear 
to  be  for  ever  and  ever.  Our  interest  is  in  knowing  whether 
education  as  it  now  is  will  give  us  citizens  who  can  accom- 
plish anything  worth  talking  about  in  the  practice  of  the 
humane  life.  The  friends  of  education  tell  us  that  men 
trained  as  they  would  and  do  train  them  will  turn  out 
shrewd,    resourceful    business    men,    competent    investi- 


176  Humanistic  Studies 

gators,  analysts,  and  reporters  in  the  professions,  clever, 
practical  men  in  public  life.  Again  we  reply.  It  may  be 
so;  but  will  they  turn  out  business  men  of  the  type,  say, 
of  Mr.  Stedman,  professional  men  of  the  type  of  Dr.  Weir 
Mitchell  (if  we  may  venture  to  bring  forward  these 
gentlemen  by  name),  public  men  and  politicians  of  the 
type  of  Mr.  Hay  or  Governor  Long?  When  these 
questions  are  satisfactorily  answered,  we  will  cheerfully 
reconsider  what  we  say  in  behalf  of  Greek  and  Latin 
literature;  but  unless  and  until  they  are  so  answered, 
we  must  continue  to  point  out  as  in  our  view  the  cardinal 
defect  in  education,  that  it  does  next  to  nothing  for  the 
humane  life,  next  to  nothing  for  poetic  truth,  next  to 
nothing  for  spiritual  activity;  and  that  its  failure  in 
these  directions  being  what  it  is,  our  civilization  is  retarded 
and  vulgarized  to  correspond. 

For  the  sake  of  civilization,  therefore,  we  of  the  min- 
istry venture  our  plea  in  behalf  of  culture.  We  beg  that 
some  of  the  stress  now  laid  upon  purely  instrumental 
knowledge  be  relieved.  How  can  we  even  be  understood 
when,  for  the  sake  of  the  great  end  of  our  calling,  we 
praise  and  recommend  culture  and  all  the  elements  and 
processes  that  enter  into  culture,  if  the  whole  bent  of 
secular  training  is  against  these,  and  serves  but  to  con- 
firm the  current  belief  that  the  only  real  knowledge  is 
instrumental  knowledge,  the  only  real  truth  is  scientific 
truth,  the  only  real  life  is  a  life  far  short  of  what  fife  might 
be  and  what  it  ought  to  be?  We  ask  that  Greek  and 
Latin  literature  be  restored.  We  do  not  pretend  to  argue 
for  the  disciplinary  worth  of  Greek  and  Latin  studies, 
their  value  as  a  memory-exercise,  as  furnishing  a  corpus 
vile  for  our  practice  in  analysis,  or  as  a  basis  for  the 
acquisition   of  modern  languages.     We  argue  solely  for 


Theology  177 

their  moral  value;  we  ask  that  they  be  restored,  under- 
stood, and  taught  as  an  indispensable  and  powerful  factor 
in  the  work  of  humanizing  society.  As  these  subjects 
are  now  taught  (if  an  unprofessional  opinion  may  be 
offered  without  offense)  their  grammatical,  philological, 
and  textual  interests  predominate.  Mr.  Weir  Smyth's 
excellent  anthology,  for  instance,  is  probably  an  example 
of  the  very  best  textbook  writing  of  its  kind,  and  a  glance 
at  this — comparing  it,  if  one  likes,  with  the  editorial 
work  of  Professor  Tyrrell,  in  the  same  series — shows  at 
once  that  Mr.  Weir  Smyth's  purposes,  admirable  as  they 
are,  are  not  our  purposes.  We  would  be  the  very  last  to 
disparage  Mr.  Weir  Smyth's  labors  or  to  fail  in  unfeigned 
praise  of  the  brilliant,  accurate,  and  painstaking  scholar- 
ship which  he  brings  to  bear  on  all  matters  that  he  sees 
fit  to  include  within  the  scope  of  his  work.  But  sat 
patriae  Priamoque  datum;  again  we  say  it  is  not  likely 
that  instrumental  knowledge,  even  in  our  dealings  with 
the  classics,  will  ever  be  neglected.  Let  us  now  have 
these  subjects  presented  to  us  in  such  a  way  as  to  keep 
their  literary  and  historical  interests  consistently  fore- 
most. Let  the  study  of  Greek  and  Latin  literature  be 
recommended  to  us  as  Mr.  Arnold,  for  example,  recom- 
mends it;  let  the  Greek  and  Latin  authors  be  introduced 
to  us  as  Mr.  Mackail  introduces  them;  let  them  be 
edited  for  us  as  Professor  Tyrrell  edits  them;  let  them  be 
interpreted  to  us  as  Professor  Jebb  or  Professor  Jowett 
interprets  them.  Or,  if  the  current  superstition  demands 
that  we  continue  to  receive  the  Greek  and  Latin  authors 
at  the  hands  of  the  Germans,  or  at  second-hand  from  the 
Germans,  we  make  no  objection;  we  stipulate  only  that 
our  editorial  work  be  done  for  us  not  by  the  German 
philologists,  textual  critics,  grammarians,  or  by   Ameri- 


178  Humanistic  Studies 

can  students  trained  in  their  schools,  but  by  Germans  of 
tlie  tj^pe  of  Lessing,  Herder,  and  Goethe — men  who  are 
tliemselves  docile  under  the  guidance  of  poetic  truth, 
who  are  themselves  eminent  in  the  understanding  and 
practice  of  the  humane  life;  men,  therefore,  who  can 
happily  interpret  this  truth  and  freely  communicate  this 
life  to  us. 

The  consideration  of  Greek  and  Latin  studies  in  view 
of  the  active  pastorate  usually,  we  believe,  takes  shape  in 
the  question  whether  or  not  it  is  worth  while  for  a  minis- 
ter to  be  able  to  read  the  New  Testament  and  the  Fathers 
in  the  original.  Into  this  controversy  we  have  never 
seen  our  way  to  enter;  nor  have  we  been  able  to  attach 
to  it  the  importance  that  it  probably  deserves.  What 
interests  us  in  Greek  and  Latin  studies  is  the  unique  and 
profitable  part  these  play  in  the  promotion  of  the  humane 
life.  Nor  do  we  argue  with  the  friends  of  education  as 
to  the  possibility  of  generating  and  serving  the  humane 
life  by  means  of  the  discipline  of  science;  we  affirm  simply 
that  the  humane  life  is  most  largely  generated  and  most 
efficiently  served  by  keeping  before  one  the  models  of 
those  in  whom  the  humane  life  most  abounds;  and  that 
of  these  models,  the  best  and  largest  part  is  presented 
to  us  in  the  literature  of  Greece  and  Rome.  The  men 
in  undergraduate  work  with  us,  back  in  the  times  of 
ignorance  before  natural  science  had  come  fully  into  its 
own,  knew  little  of  the  wonders  of  the  new  chemistry. 
Little  enough  did  they  know  of  such  principles  of  botany, 
physics,  geology,  astronomy,  zoology,  and  so  on,  as  one 
of  our  children  in  the  high  school  will  now  pretend  to 
rattle  you  off  without  notice.  But  they  knew  their 
Homer,  their  Plato,  their  Sophocles,  by  heart;  they 
knew  what  these  great  spirits  asked  of  life,  they  knew 


Theology  179 

their  views  of  life.  And  with  that  knowledge  there  also 
insensibly  grew  the  conviction  that  their  own  views  and 
askings  had  best  conform,  as  Aristotle  finely  says,  'Ho 
the  determination  of  the  judicious."  This  was  the  best, 
perhaps  the  only  fruit,  of  their  training;  they  became 
steadied,  less  superficial,  capricious,  and  fantastic. 
Living  more  and  more  under  the  empire  of  reality,  they 
saw  things  as  they  are,  and  experienced  a  profound  and 
enthusiastic  inward  motion  toward  the  humane  life,  the 
life  for  which  the  idea  is  once  and  forever  the  fact.  This 
life  is  the  material  upon  which  religion  may  have  its 
finished  work.  Chateaubriand  gives  Joubert  the  highest 
praise  that  can  be  bestowed  upon  a  human  character 
when,  speaking  of  Joubert's  death  as  defeating  his  pur- 
pose of  making  a  visit  to  Rome,  he  says,  "It  pleased 
God,  however,  to  open  to  M.  Joubert  a  heavenly  Rome, 
better  fitted  still  to  his  Platonist  and  Christian  soul." 
It  is  in  behalf  of  the  humane  life,  therefore,  that  we  of  the 
active  pastorate  place  our  present  valuation  upon  the 
literature  of  Greece  and  Rome :  for  the  first  step  in  Chris- 
tianity is  the  humanization  of  life,  and  the  finished  product 
of  Christianity  is  but  the  humane  life  irradiated  and  trans- 
figured by  the  practice  of  the  discipline  of  Jesus. 


III.  SHORT  CUTS  TO  THE  MINISTRY,  WITH  ESPE- 
CIAL REFERENCE  TO  THE  ELIMINATION  OF 
LATIN  AND  GREEK  FROM  THEOLOGICAL  EDU- 
CATION 

HUGH  BLACK 
.  Union  Theological  Seminary,  New  York 

I  am  not  responsible  for  the  title  given  me,  and  I 
suppose  we  are  all  agreed  that  there  is  no  royal  road  to 
learning,   no   short   cuts   to   anything  worth    having.     I 


180  Humanistic  Studies 

imagine  that  the  title  was  chosen  in  condemnation  of  any 
attempts  to  lower  the  standard  for  entrance  into  any 
profession.  All  responsible  for  education  have  at  least 
ideals  which  would  impose  an  irreducible  minimum,  and 
would  seek  to  stiffen  requirements  as  soon  as  it  became 
practicable  to  do  so.  The  denial  of  short  cuts  is,  perhaps, 
not  a  very  palatable  doctrine  to  a  generation  that  wants 
quick  results;  and,  in  any  case,  it  is  natural  to  assume 
that  something  less  than  the  long  and  stately  preparation 
demanded  for  the  old-time  ministry  could  be  made  to 
do  for  the  practical  needs  of  our  day.  In  some  quarters, 
also,  the  shortage  in  the  candidates  is  met  by  cutting 
down  the  ancient  scholastic  standards  and  by  shortening 
the  time  required  for  study.  It  is  the  object  of  this 
convention  to  protest  against  this  and  to  show  cause  why 
such  a  policy  must  fail  of  its  purpose. 

It  ought  to  be  said  that  it  is  not  by  the  will  of  the 
churches  that  short  cuts  should  have  become  necessary 
or  possible.  A  completely  educated  ministry  has  always 
been  the  ideal  of  the  churches  of  Protestantism.  One 
only  needs  to  know  something  of  the  history  of  education 
in  America  to  know  that  this  is  so.  All  the  older  schools 
of  learning  had  their  origin  in  this  ideal.  Every  college 
was  started  for  the  express  purpose  of  supplying  edu- 
cated men  for  the  ministry.  So,  when  we  make  a  definite 
pronouncement  against  the  short  cuts  which  would 
eliminate  subjects  we  think  indispensable,  we  ought  in 
justice  to  remember  that  often  the  church  is  compelled 
to  do  what  it  can  and  not  what  it  would.  Circumstances 
are  often  too  strong  for  us,  and  sometimes  a  situation 
arises  in  the  church  when  it  must  use  what  material  it  has. 
In  a  country  like  this,  where  a  great  tract  gets  filled  up 
in  a  few  years,  the  church  seeks  to  follow  the  movement 


Theology  181 

of  population  and  must  do  the  best  it  can  under  the  cir- 
cumstances. It  has  to  cover  the  ground,  and,  if  need 
be,  do  without  some  of  its  own  scholastic  requirements. 
Then,  there  are  different  kinds  of  work  needed  in  differ- 
ent situations,  and  it  is  fair  to  keep  in  mind  the  distinction 
between  the  qualities  needed  for  a  regular  and  long  pas- 
torate of  the  usual  type  and  the  qualities  needed  for 
what  may  be  called  the  work  of  an  evangelist.  Indis- 
criminate condemnation  of  churches  and  seminaries  that 
have  to  some  extent  departed  from  the  old  rigid  stand- 
ard is  foolish.  From  what  I  know  of  some  seminaries  in 
America  I  am  convinced  that  nowhere,  certainly  not  in 
Great  Britain,  is  there  such  a  thorough  and  scientific 
training  insisted  on.  In  no  seminary  in  the  EngUsh- 
speaking  world  is  there  such  equipment  and  such  high 
class  of  scholarly  and  practical  work  done  as  in  Union 
Theological  Seminary — to  mention  the  one  I  naturally 
know  most  about.  But  again,  I  say,  we  must  consider 
the  facts  which  make  this  standard  impossible  throughout 
the  whole  country.  For  instance,  I  have  now  in  mind  a 
seminary  which  takes  men  otherwise  qualified  who  have 
had  no  college  training.  Personally  I  am  at  one  with 
you  in  thinking  it  a  matter  of  regret  that  this  should  be 
necessary,  but  it  is  necessary,  and  in  that  seminary  they 
are  doing  according  to  their  opportunities  magnificent 
work  for  the  outlying  parts  of  a  great  state  which  other- 
wise would  not  be  supplied  with  men  at  all.  The}"  take 
the  best  men  they  can  get,  and  give  the  best  training  they 
can  provide,  a  training,  I  may  mention,  which  includes 
Greek. 

But  the  subject  given  me  suggests  a  different  and  more 
difficult  question  than  this  one  of  practical  means.  It 
is  the  heresy  that  the  old  subjects,  which  at  one  time  were 


182  Humanistic  Studies 

thought  necessary  for  the  best  education,  have  no  longer 
their  place  of  pre-eminence.  It  is  frankly  held  by  some 
that  the  time  could  be  better  spent  than  on  the  old  classi- 
cal subjects.  It  is  held  that  even  for  the  training  of 
divinity  students  Greek  is  no  longer  needed,  that  modern 
views  of  the  Bible  have  altered  the  relative  value  of  sub- 
jects, and  that  the  New  Testament  has  been  well  enough 
translated  to  give  all  that  a  minister  needs  even  for 
preaching  about  it.  Scientific  subjects,  political  economy, 
sociology,  are  of  more  practical  use  for  the  up-to-date 
minister  than  the  old  discipline.  It  was  to  be  expected 
that  this  view  should  be  taken,  since  it  is  in  line  with  a 
change  in  the  whole  world  of  learning  generally.  Pro- 
fessor Kelsey  said  that,  in  this  matter  of  the  value  of 
Greek,  we  must  educate  the  people.  That  would  perhaps 
not  be  so  hard  as  the  other  task  in  which  we  must  educate 
the  educators.  We  must  fight  out  this  question  and 
settle  it  among  ourselves  as  to  the  contents  of  a  scheme 
of  education  designed  for  certain  classes.  We  give  up 
the  old  claim  which  called  nothing  education  which  was 
not  built  on  the  classics,  but  we  are  in  danger  of  being 
swamped  and  denied  even  a  place  for  the  older  discipline. 
We  suffer  from  a  false  democracy  in  learning  which 
seems  to  hold  that  one  subject  is  as  good  as  another,  and 
so  we  find  an  elective  system  run  riot.  I  believe  in  an 
elective  system  and  I  believe  that  the  general  American 
ideal  of  a  university  is  a  great  and  magnificent  one,  but 
I  do  think  that  this  ideal  ought  to  be  separated  from  an 
academic  course  where  the  authorities  settle,  out  of  their 
wisdom  and  the  wisdom  of  the  ages,  what  is  the  best 
general  training  along  certain  lines.  A  university  ought 
to  be  hospitable  and  should,  if  it  have  the  means,  be 
willing  to  teach  any  subject;    and  from  this  wide  point 


Theology  183 

of  view  it  is  true  that  one  subject  is  as  good  as  another. 
What  is  wrong  is  that  this  theory,  which  has  its  right 
place  in  a  university  with  its  varied  professional  schools, 
has  been  brought  down  to  the  ordinary  college  course, 
and  even  to  some  extent  down  to  the  high  school.  There 
is  a  sense  in  which  it  is  unspeakably  false  to  say  that  one 
subject  is  as  good  as  another,  if  by  that  we  mean  that  for 
the  purposes  of  education  and  general  culture  of  the  mind 
any  sort  of  instrument  will  do  as  well  as  another.  A 
university,  for  example,  puts  Spanish  on  the  same  level  as 
Greek  for  entrance  and  for  graduation;  but  anybody  who 
knows  anything  knows  that  for  discipline  of  mind  alone, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  literatures,  the  two  languages  are 
not  on  the  same  level.  We  ought  to  decide  on  relative 
values  in  education.  Human  nature  being  what  it  is, 
we  cannot  expect  the  ordinary  student  to  choose  Greek 
when  Spanish  would  be  so  much  easier  to  him,  and  when 
the  whole  current  is  against  him. 

The  same  thing  is  true  about  other  things  of  equal 
importance  in  the  ministerial  education.  The  colleges 
send  graduates  to  the  seminaries  who  have  never  studied 
philosophy  in  the  old  sense  of  the  word  and  who  have 
never  had  Greek.  They  are  supposed  to  have  had  their 
equivalents.  In  the  philosophical  department  they  have 
had  psychology  and  sociology,  and  other  courses  to  make 
up  the  required  amount;  and  all  this  is  of  course  on  the 
principle  that  one  subject  is  as  good  as  another.  It  is 
perfect  nonsense  to  say  that  these  subjects,  again  for 
purposes  of  education,  are  of  equal  value  with  philosophy, 
which  is  the  history  of  thought  itself.  It  is  to  miss  the 
strategic  points;  for  just  as  a  man  trained  in  Latin  and 
Greek  will  learn  French  and  Spanish  in  half  the  time,  so 
the  student  of  philosophy  is  already  half  way  to  know 


184  Humanistic  Studies 

all  about  the  newer  "ologies"  sometimes  substituted  in 
its  place.  The  colleges  should  look  toward  the  profes- 
sional needs  of  students,  and  the  authorities  should  have 
their  minds  made  up  as  to  what  in  the  general  experience 
of  the  world  is  the  accredited  discipline,  say,  for  a  student 
who  means  to  go  on  to  the  study  of  theology.  I  do  not 
see  why  a  boy  who  goes  to  a  university  with  the  intention 
of  being  a  minister  should  not  be  taken  in  hand  by  advi- 
sory authorities  who  would  wisely  counsel  him  as  to  the 
things  he  ought  to  study;  and  even  the  boy  who  has  not 
his  mind  made  up  as  to  his  future  course  should  have  his 
course  so  far  prescribed  that  the  recognized  subjects  for 
the  finest  culture  cannot  be  omitted.  I  do  not  want  the 
colleges  and  universities  to  do  seminary  work,  but  it 
ought  not  to  be  left  to  the  seminaries  afterward  to  do 
what  is  really  college  work. 

Complaint  has  often  been  made  about  the  short  pas- 
torates that  are  so  common  today  in  the  ministry.  There 
are  many  reasons,  but  one  is  that  the  intellectual  demands 
are  greater  than  ever  before,  and  men  find  it  difficult 
to  last  out.  We  are  perhaps  justified  in  assuming  that 
a  profounder  training  in  these  foundation  subjects  would 
enable  a  man  to  wear  longer.  An  early  training  which 
included  Latin  and  Greek  would  give  some  mastery  not 
to  be  attained  by  the  varied  browsing  of  more  modern 
methods.  We  would  not  have  so  many  fads  in  religion 
if  men  knew  more  of  the  history  of  thought.  I  do  not 
need  to  go  back  over  the  argument  covered  by  President 
Mackenzie  to  prove  that  a  minister  cannot  know  his  own 
subject  if  he  is  ignorant  of  the  classical  languages.  Apart 
from  the  absurdity  of  a  man  dealing  in  any  profound  way 
with  a  book  of  whose  language  he  is  ignorant,  it  ought  to 


Theology  185 

be  remembered  that  practically  all  learned  commen- 
taries are  unreadable  to  the  man  who  does  not  know 
Hebrew  and  Greek.  It  does  not  mean  that  we  want  to 
make  men  all  specialists  in  these  languages,  but  it  is  not  so 
hard  to  get  a  working  knowledge  which  enables  one  to 
get  the  good  out  of  the  work  of  other  scholars. 

I  find  great  discouragement  among  teachers  of  the 
classical  languages  in  the  universites,  and  some  of  them 
have  given  as  their  judgment  that  in  twenty  or  thirty 
years  there  will  be  little  Latin  and  hardly  any  Greek  at  all 
taught  in  our  universities.  They  say  that  the  utilitarian 
subjects,  so  called,  are  sweeping  these  out  ruthlessly.  I 
might  believe  this  if  I  did  not  believe  that  in  the  long  run 
it  can  be  demonstrated  that,  for  the  highest  education,  the 
languages  and  literature  and  history  of  Greece  and  Rome 
are  supremely  utilitarian  and  that  nothing  can  take  their 
place.  In  any  case  there  will  always  be  many  to  whom 
utilitarianism  of  the  gross  type  is  not  the  final  test  of 
anything,  and  these  are  the  men  who  sooner  or  later 
become  the  leaders  of  men.  I  am  optimistic  about  this 
as  about  many  other  things.  It  is  a  great  matter  that 
a  symposium  like  this  should  be  held,  of  men  who  are 
convinced  because  they  know.  We  discover  in  education 
as  in  other  things  the  swing  of  the  pendulum,  and  it  is 
even  now  swinging  back  to  a  more  reasonable  position. 
Certainly  in  the  question  of  the  value  of  Latin  and  Greek 
for  the  ministry  that  is  acknowledged,  and  whatever  place 
is  given  to  other  methods  of  training  for  special  work, 
Latin  and  Greek  will  remain  as  a  necessary  part  of  the 
equipment  of  the  theological  scholar. 


186  Humanistic  Studies 

IV.    GREEK  IN  THE  HIGH  SCHOOL  AND  THE  QUES- 
TION OF  THE  SUPPLY  OF  CANDIDATES  FOR 
THE  MINISTRY 

FRANCIS  W.  KELSEY 

In  1870,  according  to  the  reports  of  the  Commissioner 
of  Education,  there  were  enrolled  in  the  theological 
schools  of  the  United  States  3,254  students.  Ten  years 
later,  the  number  had  risen  to  5,242,  an  increase  of  more 
than  60  per  cent.  In  1890  the  enrolment  was  7,013,  an 
increase  for  the  preceding  decade  of  about  34  per  cent. 
In  the  twenty  years  from  1870  to  1890,  then,  the  increase 
in  the  number  of  students  of  theology  far  outstripped  the 
increase  in  the  population  of  the  country;  for,  in  the 
decade  preceding  1880,  the  population  increased  only 
30 . 2  per  cent,  while  in  the  following  decade  the  percent- 
age of  increase  of  population  was  even  less,  or  25.5 
per  cent. 

A  reaction  was  to  be  expected.  Under  normal  con- 
ditions, in  the  case  of  any  occupation  which  enrols  mem- 
bers at  a  rate  greater  than  the  rate  of  increase  of  the 
population,  it  is  only  a  question  of  time  when  society  will 
fail  to  furnish  means  of  support  for  the  larger  numbers 
and  a  readjustment  will  follow.  The  enrolment  of 
students  in  schools  of  theology  continued  to  increase  until 
the  year  1897-98,  when  it  reached  a  maximum  of  8,371, 
the  increase  in  eight  years  being  nearly  20  per  cent,  still 
exceeding  the  rate  of  increase  of  the  population.  After 
1898  the  number  declined  until  1901-2,  when  it  had 
shrunk  to  7,343.  In  that  year  there  were  actually  fewer 
students  in  attendance  at  theological  seminaries  than 
there  had  been  ten  years  previously,  in  1891-92. 

Since  1902  there  has  been  an  increase,  small  the  first 
two   years,   then   larger.     In    1904-5   the   enrolment  in 


Theology  187 

theological  schools  was  7,580,  and  in  1905-6,  7,968,  a 
gain  of  388  students  in  a  single  year,  the  number  of  men 
enrolled  being  greater  by  305  than  in  the  previous  year. 
In  contrasting  these  statistics  with  those  of  earlier  years 
it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  at  the  present  time  there 
is  a  considerable  number  of  women  in  schools  of  theology ; 
the  enrolment  of  women  reported  for  1905-6  was  252. 
Since  1906  the  gain  has  been  rapid.  In  1909-10  the 
number  of  students  of  theology  reported  in  184  schools 
was  11,012,  of  whom  491  were  women.  Less  than  one- 
third  of  these  students,  however  (3,064  out  of  11,012), 
had  been  graduated  from  college  before  entering  the  theo- 
logical school. 

The  recent  increase  is  only  another  phase  of  readjust- 
ment, and  it  well  illustrates  the  subtle  operation  of  the 
law  of  supply  and  demand.  For,  while  the  conditions, 
as  we  shall  see,  were  unfavorable  for  the  development  of 
a  constituency  from  which  students  of  theology  would 
naturally  be  recruited,  the  decline  in  their  number  aroused 
earnest  discussion  in  the  larger  Protestant  denominations ; 
the  outcome  was  a  systematic  campaign  which  had  as 
its  object  the  influencing  of  young  men  to  consecrate 
themselves  to  the  ministry  and  to  missionary  work.^ 
The  fruits  soon  became  manifest. 

In  1900,  the  decline  in  the  number  of  candidates  for 
the  ministry  had  not  yet  made  itself  numerically  apparent 
in  the  profession.  In  1870  there  were  in  the  United  States 
43,874  clergymen;  in  1880,  64,698;  in  1890,  88,203;  and 
in  1900,  111,638.2     In  the  three  decades  the  number  of 

'  A  particiUarly  important  contribution  to  the  discussion  was  the 
volume  on  The  Future  Leadership  of  the  Church,  by  John  R.  Mott  (New 
York,  1908). 

'  Unfortunately  the  statistics  for  the  Census  of  1910  are  not  yet 
available.     And  no  attempt  can  be  made  here  to  bring  the  figures  of  the 


188  Humanistic  Studies 

clergymen  had  increased  more  rapidly  than  the  population. 
In  the  decade  from  1870  to  1880,  while  the  population 
of  the  country  increased  30.2  per  cent,  the  number  of 
clergymen  increased  47.46  per  cent.  In  the  next  ten 
years  the  population  increased  25.5  per  cent,  the  num- 
ber of  clergymen  36.33  per  cent;  finally,  in  the  decade 
ending  in  1900,  the  number  of  clergymen  increased  26 .  56 
per  cent,  while  the  increase  of  population  was  only  21.2 
per  cent.  But  again  we  must  notice  that  of  the  111,638 
clergymen  enumerated  in  the  census  of  1900,  3,373,  or 
3  per  cent,  were  women,  of  whom  probably  only  a  small 
minority  were  occupying  pulpits.  In  1870  there  was  a 
clergyman  to  every  878  persons — men,  women,  and 
children — in  the  United  States;  in  1880,  one  to  every 
775;  in  1890,  one  to  every  714,  and  in  1900  (women 
included),  one  to  every  681. 

In  judging  of  the  significance  of  these  figures,  account 
should  be  taken  of  differences  in  race;  for  negro  clergy- 
men in  the  decade  preceding  1900  increased  more  rapidly 
in  number  than  white.     In  the  supplementary  analysis 

Census  of  1900  into  relation  with  those  published  in  the  Special  Report 
for  1906  {Special  Reports:  Religious  Bodies,  1906,  Part  I,  pp.  91,  514; 
Washington,  1910)  which  is  based  upon  reports  furnished  by  the  various 
denominations;  in  this  the  number  of  ministers  in  the  United  States 
and  Alaska  in  1890  is  given  as  111,036,  and  the  number  of  minis- 
ters in  the  continental  United  States  in  1906  as  164,830.  Obviously 
the  basis  of  classification  is  not  the  same  as  in  the  Census.  The  164,830 
clergymen  reported  in  1906  are  distributed  as  follows:  Protestant 
bodies,  146,451;  Roman  Catholic,  15,177;  Jewish,  1,084;  Latter-Day 
Saints,  1,774;  Eastern  Orthodox  churches,  108;  all  other  bodies,  236. 
"The  family  reporting  the  greatest  number  of  ministers  for  1906  is 
the  Baptist,  with  43,790,  or  26 . 6  per  cent  of  the  total,  while  the  Metho- 
dist bodies  come  next  in  order,  with  39,737,  or  24 . 1  per  cent  of  the  total. 
These  two  families  show  a  little  more  than  one-half  the  entire  number 
of  ministers.  The  Presbyterian  bodies  report  12,456  ministers;  the 
Disciples,  or  Christians,  8,741;  and  the  Lutheran  bodies,  7,841."  The 
Congregational  church  was  credited  in  1906  with  5,802  ministers,  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  with  5,368. 


Theology  189 

of  the  Twelfth  Census^  the  statistics  covering  this  point 
are  summarized  as  follows  (p.  234) : 

The  number  of  negro  clergymen  in  continental  United 
States  in  1900  was  15,528,  as  compared  with  12,159  in  1890, 
the  increase  being  3,369,  or  27.7  per  cent.  White  clergymen 
increased  somewhat  less  rapidly,  from  75,972  in  1890  to  94,437 
in  1900,  or  24.3  per  cent.  With  both  races  the  number  of 
clergymen  increased  more  rapidly  than  the  population.  In  the 
South  the  number  of  non-Caucasian  clergymen  rose  from 
10,159  in  1890  to  12,841  in  1900,  the  increase  being  2,682,  or 
26.4  per  cent.  The  increase  in  white  clergymen  was  from 
17,688  in  1890  to  21,387  in  1900,  or  20 . 9  per  cent.  Of  the  total 
clergymen  in  the  South  in  1890,  36 . 5  per  cent  were  non-Cauca- 
sian, and  in  1900,  37.5,  a  gain  of  1.  Clergymen  of  all  races 
increased  somewhat  more  rapidly  in  the  North  and  West  than 
in  the  South.  In  continental  United  States  the  number  of  cler- 
gymen of  each  race  to  each  100,000  persons  of  the  same  race 
was: 

Negro,  Indian,  and  Mongohan  clergymen,  160  in  1890,  171 
in  1900. 

White  clergymen,  138  in  1890,  141  in  1900. 

That  the  statistics  showing  this  steady  increase  in  the 
number  of  clergymen  should  not  coincide  with  the  statis- 
tics indicating  increase  and  decrease  in  enrolment  of 
ministerial  candidates  in  theological  schools  is  not  strange. 
It  would  be  some  years  before  even  a  marked  decline  in 
the  number  of  students  of  theology  would  perceptibly 
lessen  the  number  of  clergymen  in  the  country.  But 
there  are  other  reasons  which  are,  in  part,  manifestly 
phases  of  the  operation  of  the  law  of  supply  and  demand, 
in  part  the  result  of  conditions  peculiar  to  the  ministry 
as  a  profession. 

With  the  vast  throngs  of  emigrants  that  have  entered 

"Bureau  of  the  Census,  Special  Reports:  Supplementary  Analysis 
and  Derivative  Tables,  Twelfth  Census;   Washington,  1906. 


100  Humanistic  Studies 

the  country  since  1870  have  come  pastors  and  priests  of 
many  tongues ;  and,  on  account  of  the  increasing  scarcity 
of  theologians  and  preachers  of  the  first  class  trained  in 
American  schools,  stronger  churches  and  theological 
chairs  have  increasingly  sought  out  and  brought  to  the 
United  States  clergymen  educated  in  other  English- 
speaking  countries.  Of  the  108,265  male  clergymen  listed 
in  the  census  of  1900,  84,760,  or  78.3  per  cent,  were  re- 
corded as  "native  born";  23,505,  or  21.7  per  cent,  were 
reported  as  born  outside  the  United  States;  the  percentage 
of  clergymen  of  foreign  birth  in  1890  (21.1  per  cent) 
was  not  much  smaller  than  in  1900.  In  1900,  11.2  per 
cent  of  our  physicians  and  surgeons,  6.3  per  cent  of  our 
lawyers,  and  8 . 4  per  cent  of  our  teachers,  were  of  foreign 
birth,  a  fact  which  may  be  interpreted  as  indicating  that 
5  to  7  per  cent  of  our  doctors,  lawyers,  and  teachers  were 
born  in  foreign  countries  but  educated  in  the  United 
States,  the  rest  of  those  reported  as  foreign  born  being 
also  educated  in  foreign  countries.  We  are  probably  safe 
in  assuming  that  one-half  or  two-thirds  of  the  23,505 
clergymen  of  foreign  birth  recorded  in  1900  were  educated 
outside  the  United  States,  coming  to  this  country  after 
the  completion  of  their  professional  study. 

Again,  it  is  understood  that  in  some  parts  of  the 
country,  particularly  the  South,  many  have  been  licensed 
to  preach  without  having  pursued  a  course  in  a  theological 
school.  It  is,  however,  difficult  to  secure  statistics  in 
regard  to  this  practice,  or  to  judge  in  what  degree  the 
total  is  affected  by  accessions  to  the  ranks  of  the  clergy 
from  this  source. 

Finally,  the  census  enrolment  of  clergymen  differs  in 
an  important  particular  from  that  of  members  of  other 
professions.     When  graduates  of  law  or  medical  schools 


Theology  191 

turn  aside  from  their  profession  to  enter  other  fields  of 
work  they  ordinarily  drop  their  titles  and  are  afterward 
not  enumerated  as  lawyers  and  doctors.  If,  however, 
men  have  once  taken  orders,  they  generally  keep  up  their 
ecclesiastical  relations  and  continue  their  life  long  to  be 
recorded  as  ministers;  though  for  a  period  of  years  they 
may  have  been  engaged  in  secular  teaching,  in  life  insur- 
ance, or  other  occupations  having  no  direct  connection 
with  the  sacred  office,  they  retain  the  right  to  vote  along 
with  the  active  ministry  in  ecclesiastical  assemblies,  in 
which  they  form  a  strongly  conservative  element.  A 
comparison  with  the  statistics  of  enrolment  in  the  medical 
profession  is  in  this  respect  instructive.  In  1880  there 
were  11,929  students  of  medicine,  enrolled  in  90  schools; 
in  1890,  15,484  students  in  129  schools;  in  1900  the  num- 
ber had  risen  to  25,213,  enrolled  in  151  schools.  In  the 
twenty  years  the  number  of  students  of  medicine  more 
than  doubled,  but  the  increase  in  the  number  of  men  set 
down  as  physicians  and  surgeons  in  the  first  period  was 
below  the  increase  of  population,  in  the  second  period 
only  slightly  in  advance  of  it.  The  census  records  the 
number  of  physicians  and  surgeons  in  1880  as  85,671, 
and  in  1890  as  104,805,  an  increase  of  22.3  per  cent, 
while  the  increase  in  population  was  25.5  per  cent;  in 
1900  the  number  was  132,002,  an  increase  of  25.9  per 
cent  in  the  decade,  the  increase  of  population  being  21 .2 
per  cent.  In  1880  there  was  a  physician  or  surgeon  to 
every  585  persons  in  the  country;  in  1900  the  ratio  was 
somewhat  higher,  one  to  every  570. 

How  many  are  enumerated  in  the  census  as  clergymen 
who  cannot  properly  be  considered  of  the  ministry,  either 
active  or  retired,  it  is  not  possible  to  estimate;  but  it  is 
plain  that  all  errors  of  classification  on  the  part  of  census 


192  Humanistic  Studies 

(Miiinierators  reckoning  those  as  clergymen  who  once  were 
clergymen  but  were  such  no  longer  except  in  name,  would 
go  to  swell  the  total  enrolment  in  the  profession  and  would 
so  far  vitiate  the  correctness  of  the  figures. 

If  the  death  rate  computed  in  the  Twelfth  Census  for 
''the  professional  class"  (15.3  per  1,000)  held  true  in  the 
case  of  clergymen,  the  loss  by  death  in  1900  among  the 
111,638  clergymen  should  have  been  about  1,700,  and 
this  loss  should  have  been  offset  by  the  influx,  into  the 
profession,  of  the  1,773  graduates  from  theological  schools 
recorded  in  that  year — not  to  speak  of  other  sources  of 
supply.  But  the  death  rate  among  clergymen  in  the 
"registration  states"  in  1900  reached  the  surprising  ratio 
of  23.5  per  1,000,  a  rate  of  mortality  higher  even  than 
that  among  physicians  and  surgeons  (19.9  per  1,000).^ 
It  is  not  certain  that  this  high  death  rate  would  hold, 
true  of  the  clergymen  of  the  United  States  as  a  whole; 
but  if  it  could  be  proved  to  be  valid  for  the  larger  area,^ 
the  fact  would  imply  that  the  average  age  among  clergy- 
men had  increased  considerably  above  normal  because 
not  enough  young  men  had  of  late  been  entering  the  pro- 
fession to  keep  the  average  age  and  death  rate  down ;  and 
under  such  conditions,  again,  a  dearth  of  clergymen 
trained  for  their  work  in  the  United  States  might  be 
anticipated,  so  soon  as  the  number  of  graduates  in  theol- 
ogy in  any  year  should  fail  to  exceed  somewhat^  the  num- 
ber of  clergymen  removed  in  that  year  by  death.  Of  the 
clergymen  in  "registration  states,"  regarding  whom  data 

'  Twelfth  Census  of  the  United  States,  1900,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  cclxiii-cclxv. 

'At  the  rate  of  23.5  per  1,000  the  loss  of  clergymen  by  death  in 
the  United  States  in  1900  would  have  exceeded  2,600.  The  death  rate 
computed  for  clergymen  in  1890  was  much  lower,  only  18.2  per  1,000. 

'  There  must  be  a  surplus  to  recruit  the  ranks  of  missionaries  who, 
expatriated,  are  not  reckoned  in  the  census  of  the  United  States. 


Theology  193 

were  collected  in  1900  (23,485,  about  one-fifth  of  the 
clergymen  in  the  country),  more  than  45  per  cent  were 
above  the  age  of  45  years;  but  of  the  lawyers  less  than 
38  per  cent,  and  of  the  physicians  and  surgeons  less  than 
37  per  cent,  were  more  than  45  years  old.  The  number 
of  graduates  from  all  the  theological  schools  of  the  United 
States  in  1906  was  1,551;  in  1910,  1,759. 

We  see,  then,  that  the  determination  of  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  figures  which  have  been  cited  is  no  simple 
matter.  Statistics  in  any  case  are  only  a  partial  or 
approximate  expression  of  conditions;  and  the  relation 
of  the  rate  of  increase  in  the  census  of  the  professions  to 
the  enrolment  of  students  in  professional  schools  involves 
the  weighing  of  many  considerations  which  cannot  be 
taken  into  account  at  this  time.  No  interpretation  of 
such  data  is  trustworthy,  however,  which  does  not  view 
them  in  relation  to  the  general  educational  movement  of 
our  country  in  the  past  thirty  years,  a  movement  which, 
in  point  of  numbers  affected,  is  without  parallel  in  the 
history  of  education.  In  1889-90  the  number  of  colle- 
giate and  resident  graduate  students  enrolled  in  the  uni- 
versities and  colleges  of  the  country,  including  the  separate 
colleges  for  women  that  were  such  in  fact  as  well  as  in 
name,  and  in  schools  of  technology,  was  reported  as 
55,687;  in  1905-6,  only  seventeen  years  later,  it  was 
135,834  (97,738  men,  38,096  women),  an  increase  of 
nearly  144  per  cent;  in  1909-10  the  total  enrolment  was 
171,893  in  602  universities,  colleges,  and  technological 
schools,  the  men  numbering  119,578,  the  women  52,315. 
In  the  same  period,  as  we  have  seen,  the  enrolment  in 
secondary  schools,  public  and  private,  ran  from  297,894 
to  the  almost  incredible  figure  1,032,461;  if  to  this  we 
add  the  enrolment  of  secondary  students  in  public  and 


194  Humanistic  Studies 

private  normal  schools,  universities  and  colleges,  colleges 
for  women,  and  manual-training  schools,  we  have  the 
total  of  1,131,466  students  receiving  secondary  instruc- 
tion in  1910. 

In  this  enormous  increase  of  students  in  institutions 
of  secondary  and  higher  education,  schools  of  dentistry, 
pharmacy,  and  engineering  have  fared  relatively  as  well 
as  schools  of  law  and  medicine,  or  even  better.  The 
students  of  dentistry  registered  in  dental  colleges  in  1880 
numbered  730;  in  1890,  2,696;  in  1900,  7,928;  in  1910, 
6,439,  the  falling  off  being  in  part  due  to  the  adoption 
of  higher  requirements.  Of  students  of  pharmacy  1,347 
were  reported  in  1880,  2,871  in  1890,  4,042  in  1900,  and 
6,226  in  1910.  In  the  thirty  years  from  1875  to  1905 
the  increase  in  attendance  at  schools  of  theology  was 
44.8  per  cent  (5,234  in  1875,  7,580  in  1905);  at  schools 
of  law,  450  per  cent  (2,677  in  1875,  14,714  in  1905) ;  at 
schools  of  medicine,  201  per  cent  (8,580  in  1875,  25,835 
in  1905);  at  schools  of  dentistry,  1,424  per  cent  (469  in 
1875,  7,149  in  1905,  the  number  in  1905  being  somewhat 
smaller  than  in  1900);  and  at  schools  of  pharmacy,  436 
per  cent  (922  in  1875,  4,944  in  1905).  A  similar  com- 
putation for  the  three  decades  1880-1910  would  give  to 
the  enrolment  in  schools  of  theology  a  relatively  more 
favorable  showing;  but  such  comparisons  are  of  slight 
value.  The  enrolment  of  students  in  schools  of  tech- 
nology increased  from  7,577  in  1889-90  to  16,110  in 
1905-6,  or  112  per  cent  in  seventeen  years. 

It  would  be  natural  to  assume  that  the  increase  in 
the  enrolment  of  students  of  applied  science  and  of  law 
was  due  in  large  measure  to  the  multiplication  of  technical 
schools  since  1875,  and  to  the  raising  of  professional 
standards  which  drove  out  of  fashion  the  time-honored 


Theology  195 

method  of  preparing  for  a  professional  career  by  office 
study.  Schools  of  law  numbered  43  in  1875,  114  in  1910; 
schools  of  medicine,  80  in  1875,  135  in  1910;  schools  of 
dentistry,  12  in  1875,  53  in  1910;  and  schools  of  phar- 
macy, 14  in  1875,  79  in  1910.  The  increase  in  the  num- 
ber of  schools  of  theology  has  been  less  marked;  the  num- 
ber was  123  in  1875,  184  in  1910.  But  the  schools  of 
theology,  nevertheless,  in  1910  outnumbered  the  schools  of 
law  by  60,  the  schools  of  medicine  by  49,  and  were  52  more 
than  the  combined  number  of  schools  of  dentistry  and  of 
pharmacy.  The  multiplication  and  wide  distribution 
of  professional  schools  has  undoubtedly  had  a  stimulating 
effect  upon  the  enrolment  of  students;  yet  they  were 
called  into  existence  in  response  to  a  social  need,  and 
they  would  not  have  had  so  many  students  if  the  time 
had  not  been  ripe  for  their  establishment.  Such  influence 
as  they  have  exerted  in  stimulating  the  enrolment  of 
students  has  been  in  part  offset  by  the  increasing  diffi- 
culty and  stricter  enforcement  of  the  requirements  for 
admission  and  graduation.  We  are  forced  to  the  con- 
clusion that,  though  the  last  census  furnished  no  indica- 
tion of  a  serious  diminution  in  the  supply  of  clergymen,  the 
attendance  at  schools  of  theology  until  recently  showed 
a  falling  off  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  increase  in  attend- 
ance at  other  professional  schools. 

As  the  statistics  indicate  (pp.  11-13)  the  rush  of  stu- 
dents into  institutions  of  secondary  and  higher  education 
in  recent  years  is  a  concomitant  of  the  increasing  concen- 
tration of  our  population  in  cities  and  towns,  which  in 
turn  is  consequent  upon  the  enormous  and  unanticipated 
development  of  our  industries  and  commerce.  The  ex- 
traordinary increase  in  the  number  and  size  of  cities  and 
towns  has  caused  the  rapid  multiplication  of  public  high 


190  Humanistic  Studies 

schools,  which  in  1889-90  numbered  2,526,  with  9,120 
teachers  ami  202,963  pupils;  in  1909-10  there  were  10,213 
public  high  schools,  with  915,061  students. 

Urban  life  in  general  is  more  stimulating  to  the  desire 
of  advanced  education  and  the  choice  of  a  professional 
career  than  rural  life ;  and  the  growth  of  public  high  schools 
has  established  a  line  of  least  resistance  leading  to  higher 
institutions.  There  are  some  indications  that  we  are 
on  the  eve  of  a  reaction,  not  for  sentimental  but  for 
economic  reasons,  toward  farm  life,  and  that  in  the  next 
few  decades  the  concentration  of  population  in  cities 
and  towns  will  proceed  less  rapidly,  in  proportion  to  the 
increase  of  our  rural  population,  than  in  the  past  quarter- 
century.  Be  that  as  it  may,  a  survey  of  present  conditions 
reveals  no  obvious  reason  why  the  ministry  should  not 
rank,  if  not  with  engineering,  at  least  with  law  and  medi- 
cine, in  the  preference  of  students  choosing  a  profession, 
especially  since  the  changes  in  the  distribution  of  popula- 
tion have  not  been  accompanied  by  a  decline  in  the  activ- 
ity or  influence  of  the  religious  denominations  as  a  whole. 
There  are  also  many  fields  of  work  outside  the  ministry 
that  attract  young  men  who  are  seeking  an  opportunity 
for  religious  service. 

But  the  ministry  is  not  the  only  calling  which,  at  the 
present  time,  is  confronted  with  a  shortage  of  men,  immi- 
nent or  actual.  The  number  of  men  and  women  engaged 
in  the  work  of  teaching  is  vastly  greater,  greater  in  fact 
than  the  combined  number  of  clergymen,  physicians  and 
surgeons,  lawyers,  dentists,  and  engineers.^  The  increase 
in  the  number  of  teachers  has  not  only  kept  pace  with 

1  These  were  431,004  in  1900,  made  up  as  follows:  clergymen, 
111,638;  physicians  and  surgeons,  132,002;  lawyers,  114,460;  dentists, 
29,665;  engineers,  43,239.     The  number  of  teachers  in  1900  was  446,133. 


Theology  197 

the  growth  of  population,  but  has  far  surpassed  it.  In 
1870  there  were  73  teachers  to  each  10,000  persons  of 
school  age  (5  to  24  years);  in  1880,  102;  in  1890,  127; 
and  in  1900,  140.  But  the  proportion  of  male  teachers 
has  steadily  declined.  It  was  a  trifle  more  than  one- 
third  of  the  whole  number  (33.7  per  cent)  in  1870;  in 
1900  it  was  just  above  one-fourth  (26.6)  in  the  conti- 
nental United  States,  if  teachers  of  all  races  are  reckoned 
together.  The  percentage  of  male  teachers  was  some- 
what higher  among  the  negroes  and  Indians;  of  the 
424,422  white  teachers  recorded  in  that  year  only  26 . 1 
per  cent  were  men.  In  1905-6,  according  to  the  report  of 
the  Commissioner  of  Education,  less  than  24  per  cent 
(23.6)  of  the  466,063  teachers  in  common  schools  were 
men,  the  percentage  being  higher  in  country  than  in 
city  schools  and  in  the  southern  than  in  the  northern 
states;  in  the  north  Atlantic  states  male  teachers  were 
only  one  in  seven  (14.2  per  cent).  In  the  661  cities  of 
the  United  States  containing  over  8,000  inhabitants, 
the  ratio  in  1906  was  very  nearly  one  male  to  twelve 
female  teachers.  In  these  same  cities  in  the  public  high 
schools  there  were  4,912  male  teachers  to  7,491  female 
teachers;  in  the  other  pubUc  high  schools  of  the  country 
the  division  according  to  sex  was  more  nearly  equal,  the 
number  of  male  teachers  being  given  as  9,424,  of  female 
teachers,  9,017.  In  1909,  only  21.4  per  cent  of  the 
506,040  teachers  in  the  common  schools  were  men. 

In  the  decade  from  1890  to  1900,  while  the  number  of 
teachers  in  the  country  increased  nearly  28.5  per  cent 
and  the  population  increased  21.2  per  cent,  the  increase 
in  the  number  of  male  teachers,  in  all  classes  of  schools 
and  colleges,  was  only  17.02  per  cent  (from  101,278  to 
118,519),  a  relative  decline  so  great  as  to  produce  a  marked 


108 


Humanistic  Studies 


effect  upon  the  profession.  That  the  loss  of  men  to  the 
profession  of  teaching  has  not  been  more  keenly  felt  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  the  large  increase  in  the  number  of 
women  graduated  from  secondary  and  higher  institutions 
in  recent  years  has  furnished  substitutes  or  recruits  for 
almost  all  classes  of  positions.  Had  the  increase  in  the 
number  of  male  teachers  kept  pace  with  the  increase  in 
the  number  of  teachers,  the  census  enrolment  of  men 
engaged  in  teaching  in  1900  should  have  been  about  130,- 
000  instead  of  118,519;  had  the  rate  of  increase  been  only 
as  great  as  that  of  the  population,  the  enrolment  would 
nevertheless  have  been  above  122,000. 

But  the  United  States  does  not  stand  alone  in  the 
decline  either  in  the  number  of  students  of  theology  or 
in  the  proportion  of  men  among  its  teachers.  In  the 
following  table  the  enrolment  of  professional  students 
in  the  German  Empire  is  shown  for  the  university  faculties 
of  theology  (Protestant  and  Catholic),  law,  and  medicine, 
at  different  periods  since  1875: 

ENROLMENT  OF  STUDENTS  IN  CERTAIN  PROFES- 
SIONAL DEPARTMENTS  IN  GERMANY* 


Year 

1 

'heology 

Law 

Medicine 

Protestant 

Catholic 

Total 

1875-76 

1880-81 

1885-86 

1890-91 

1895-96 

1900-1901 

190.5-6 

1,519 
2,384 
4,403 
4,190 
2,860 
2,437 
2,166 
2,167 
2,213 
2,172 
2,320 

710 
648 
1,068 
1,232 
1,469 
1,584 
1,680 
1,707 
1,700 
1,663 
1,698 

2,229 
3,032 
5,471 
5,422 
4,329 
4,021 
3,846 
3,874 
3,913 
3,835 
4,018 

4,537 

5,260 

4,825 

6,670 

7,6.55 

10,292 

12,4.56 

12,524 

12,254 

11,827 

11,925 

3,333 
4,179 
7,680 
8,381 
7,664 
7,815 
6,142 

1906-7 

1907-8 

8,217 

8,930 

10,223 

11,627 

1908-9 

1909-10 

•  The  writer  is  indebted  to  the  Commissioner  of  Education  for  these 
statistics. 


Theology  199 

The  conditions  in  Germany  are  so  unlike  those  of  the 
United  States  that  a  detailed  comparison  with  our  con- 
ditions would  be  fruitless.  It  is,  however,  important 
to  notice  that  the  enrolment  of  students  of  theology,  as 
with  us,  has  not  kept  pace  with  the  enrolment  of  students 
of  law  and  medicine;  and  also  that,  as  with  us,  the  relative 
decline  has  been  less  marked  in  the  case  of  Catholic  than 
of  Protestant  students.^ 

The  proportion  of  male  to  female  teachers  varies 
greatly  in  different  countries ;  yet  in  all  the  countries  for 
which  recent  statistics  are  available  for  comparison,^ 
there  has  been  a  relative  decrease  in  the  number  of  male 
teachers.  This  decrease  was  from  29 . 6  to  26 . 8  per  cent 
in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  in  twenty  years  (1881  to 
1901);  72.6  to  68.5  per  cent  in  Germany  in  thirteen 
years  (1882  to  1895);  54.4  to  42.4  per  cent  in  France  in 
ten  years  (1886  to  1896);  and  41.2  to  35.4  per  cent  in 
Italy  in  twenty  years  (1881  to  1901).  Here  again  a 
detailed  comparison  would  be  devoid  of  value;  but  the 
statistics  indicate  an  unmistakable  tendency  which  seems 
to  be  common  to  the  foremost  nations  and  which  is  appar- 

>  The  situation  was  discussed  in  an  article  in  Chronik  der  christ- 
lichen  Welt  for  September  12,  1907,  summarized  by  Professor  H.  M. 
Scott  in  the  Chicago  Seminary  Quarterly  as  follows:  "Thirty  years  ago 
there  were  17,500  students  in  German  universities,  ten  years  ago  there 
were  30,000,  and  last  year  there  were  45,000,  of  whom  41,000  were  native 
Germans.  The  total  number  of  students  has  grown  nearly  twice  as  fast 
as  the  population,  and  in  face  of  this  the  number  of  Protestant  students 
of  theology  has  steadily  declined.  It  went,  between  1886  and  1905,  in 
Prussia  from  2,042  to  719,  and  the  end  is  not  yet.  There  are  only  250 
ministers  available  for  425  places.  In  1889  there  were  in  Berlin  570 
divinity  students;  in  1895  there  were  292;  and  in  1906  only  178.  Be- 
tween 1870  and  1903  students  of  theology  made  no  increase;  the  numbers 
were  2,155  and  2,150!  And  in  that  period  students  of  philology  increased 
from  2,753  to  5,501,  and  in  1906  to  8,464!  The  lack  of  candidates  for 
the  ministry  is  now  between  800  and  900." 

2  Conveniently  summarized  in  Supplementary  Analysis  and  Deriva- 
tive Tables,  Twelfth  Census,  p.  478. 


200  Humanistic  Studies 

ently  a  phase  of  a  larger  readjustment  of  modern  life  to 
new  economic  and  social  conditions. 

In  the  United  States  at  the  present  time  complaints 
of  the  lack  of  trained  men  for  Protestant  pulpits  are  heard 
not  more  frequently  than  of  the  lack  of  men  properly 
equipped  for  certain  kinds  of  educational  work,  particu- 
larly in  the  secondary  schools.  Yet  for  any  vacancy  in 
either  calling  which  assured  a  bare  living  there  has  been, 
up  to  the  present  time,  no  lack  of  applicants.  The  difficul- 
ty has  been  to  find  candidates  of  the  right  quality.  Rash 
statements  should  be  avoided;  but  we  may  well  believe 
that,  while  the  relative  number  of  first-rate  physicians  and 
lawyers  is  greater  than  it  was  twenty  years  ago,  the 
relative  number  of  first-rate  teachers,  outside  of  the  uni- 
versities, and  of  first-rate  ministers,  is  smaller.  This  must 
continue  to  be  the  case,  in  the  ministry,  so  long  as  the 
graduates  in  medicine  and  law  are  relatively  so  much 
more  numerous  than  graduates  in  theology;^  for  the 
larger  the  number  of  men  entering  a  profession  the  greater 
will  be  the  number  of  weaker  men  forced  out  by  competi- 
tion and  the  stronger  will  be  the  average  quality  of  the 
remainder.  But  there  are  other  factors  in  the  problem; 
surface  indications  are  here  no  guide. 

In  the  first  place,  the  lack  of  homogeneity  in  our 
cultural  conditions  directly  affects  those  two  professions 
which  are  the  most  obvious  expression  of  the  social  con- 
sciousness upon  the  ideal  side,  teaching  and  the  ministry. 
In  the  conflict  of  impulses  seeking  expression  among  us 
there  is  no  clear  note,  there  is  a  lack  of  that  imperative 

»  While  the  graduates  in  theology  in  1910  numbered  1,759,  graduates 
in  medicine  numbered  4,448,  and  in  law,  4,233.  Had  the  graduates  in 
theology  been  as  numerous  in  relation  to  the  census  of  clergymen  as 
the  graduates  in  medicine  were  in  relation  to  the  census  of  physicians 
and  surgeons,  the  number  would  have  exceeded  4,000. 


Theology  201 

which  forces  men  to  the  pulpit  or  the  teacher's  desk  to 
become  interpreters  and  prophets  for  the  hfe  around 
them.  How  different  it  was  in  Puritan  New  England, 
when  babes  were  consecrated  to  the  ministry  in  the 
cradle!  How  different  is  the  attitude  of  society  toward 
the  profession  of  teaching,  now  that  the  control  and 
direction  of  most  systems  of  instruction,  and  the  fate 
of  most  teachers,  are  in  the  hands  of  boards  composed 
of  men  selected  generally  for  other  reasons  than  fitness 
to  deal  with  educational  problems! 

Furthermore,  in  the  profession  of  teaching  outside  of 
the  colleges  and  universities  there  is  uncertainty  of  tenure, 
with  which  is  coupled  insufficient  remuneration.  Every 
year  men  of  marked  success,  with  an  equipment  repre- 
senting a  large  outlay  of  time,  energy,  and  money,  are 
forced  out  of  the  profession,  and  young  men  of  promise 
are  deterred  from  entering  it,  because  they  can  foresee 
no  time  when  the  rewards  of  faithful  and  successful  effort 
will  be  assured  to  them.  This  results  in  part  from  the 
inadequate  endowment  and  precarious  existence  of  many 
institutions  of  private  support;  but  the  great  majority 
of  teachers  are  in  institutions  supported  by  local  taxation, 
in  which,  generally  speaking,  no  number  of  years  of  effi- 
cient service  and  no  degree  of  eminence  in  the  profession 
will  protect  a  teacher  against  a  persistent  public  official 
using  the  influence  of  his  temporary  position  to  carry  out 
an  ulterior  purpose  or  ride  a  hobby  or  vent  personal  spite. 
We  may  grant  that  the  majority  of  men  in  elective 
governing  boards  are  public-spirited  and  have  a  lively 
interest  in  the  schools  which  they  control;  can  we  expect 
that  school  administration,  under  present  conditions, 
will  not  manifest  the  lack  of  foresight  and  executive 
continuity    characteristic    of    the    administration   of    all 


202  Humanistic  Studies 

local  affairs  in  our  country?  There  are  encouraging 
signs  of  improvement,  indications  that  the  American 
people  will  attack  the  problem  of  local  administration 
and  solve  it.  Meanwhile,  the  difficulty  of  finding  men 
able  to  fill  the  best  positions  increases  every  year. 

From  the  economic  point  of  view  the  ministry  is  on 
a  different  footing  from  teaching.  Because  the  social 
imperative  is  not  heard  for  either  calling,  both  are  gener- 
ally shunned  by  men  who  have  financial  resources,  who 
make  other  professions  or  occupations  their  first  choice. 
Both  callings  are  therefore  in  great  part  recruited  from  the 
ranks  of  those  who  are  not  financially  independent.  Men 
who  purpose  to  teach  must  gain  their  equipment  at  their 
own  expense — scholarship  and  fellowship  aid  assists  but  a 
small  percentage.  This  means  that  professional  prepara- 
tion is  in  many  cases  a  constant  struggle,  with  an  accumu- 
lation of  indebtedness  at  the  end  which  the  earnings  of  an 
ill-paid  profession  must  be  relied  upon  to  wipe  out.  Under 
present  conditions  the  most  farsighted  students  who  are 
attracted  to  the  work  of  teaching  become  increasingly 
w^ary  of  embarking  heavily  loaded  on  an  uncertain  sea. 
But  so  soon  as  a  young  man  manifests  a  desire  to  study 
theology,  his  church  reaches  out  to  him  a  helping  hand. 
Not  only  does  he  receive  moral  encouragement,  but  in 
most  denominations  a  less  or  greater  measure  of  financial 
support  through  college  and  seminary.  Theological 
schools  have  been  known  to  pay  even  the  traveling 
expenses  of  students  from  their  homes.  This  subsidizing 
of  the  study  of  theology  has  given  to  that  profession  a 
distinct  advantage  in  the  recruiting  of  men,  and  has  had 
the  effect  of  making  them  feel  secure  of  their  future.  It 
has  also  now  and  then  carried  through  an  extended  and 
costly  course  of  training,  as  along  the  line  of  least  resist- 
ance, students  who  possessed  no  other  quality  of  fitness 


Theology  203 

than  a  kind  of  superficial  goodness  due  to  a  lack  of  force; 
and  it  has  pauperized  many  a  well-meaning  fellow  who 
has  gone  out  into  the  ministry  with  the  perverted  notion 
that  the  world  owed  him  a  living.  But  these  are  acci- 
dental, not  necessary,  results  of  a  system  that  is,  on  the 
whole,  probably  as  advantageous  as  it  is,  under  present 
conditions,  necessary.  Nothing  could  be  farther  from 
the  truth  than  the  frequent  assertion  that  men  shun  the 
ministry  because  the  temper  of  our  time  is  prevailingly 
sordid.  No  one  can  be  found  who  has  dealt  with  Ameri- 
can youth  in  educational  institutions  for  a  quarter  of  a 
century  who  believes  that  there  ever  was  a  time  when 
more  young  men  were  ready  to  give  themselves  to  an 
altruistic  motive,  to  consecrate  themselves  with  whole- 
hearted devotion  to  a  worthy  cause,  than  now.  Are  we 
not,  at  heart,  a  nation  of  idealists?  How  otherwise  is 
one  to  account  for  the  attitude  of  our  whole  people  toward 
the  Spanish  War  and  the  problem  of  Cuban  independence  ? 
And  among  our  young  people  there  is  no  lack  of  interest 
in  religious  matters;  how  otherwise  would  it  be  possible 
to  explain  the  extension  of  the  work  of  the  Christian 
associations  for  men  and  for  women,  and  the  rapid  rise 
of  church  organizations  for  young  people  which  have  as 
their  purpose  the  development  of  youth  on  the  side  of 
religious  experience  and  expression? 

The  chief  cause  of  the  decline  in  the  number  of  our 
students  of  theology  lies  in  the  lack  of  adjustment  between 
reUgious  and  secular  education.  One  phase  of  this 
estrangement,  the  isolation  of  theological  schools  and  its 
unfortunate  consequences  both  for  the  study  of  theology 
and  for  the  universities,  I  have  discussed  elsewhere.^     To 

1  "The  State  Universities  and  the  Churches,"  Proceedings  of  the 
Conference  on  Religious  Education,  University  of  Illinois  Bulletin,  Vol. 
Ill  (1906),  No.  8,  Part  2;    "The  Problem  of  Religious  Instruction  in 


204  Humanistic  Studies 

how  groat  an  extent  education  in  the  stages  below  the 
college  and  university  has  become  secularized,  is  not  gen- 
erally understood,  on  account  of  the  rapidity  with  which 
the  process  of  secularization  has  gone  on.  Though  the 
choice  of  a  career  is,  in  most  cases,  not  definitely  fixed 
while  the  student  is  in  the  secondary  school,  his  field  of 
choice  is  so  restricted  by  his  selection  of  studies  in  this 
period  as  to  confine  him,  in  respect  to  facility  of  profession- 
al preparation,  within  narrow  limits.  This  is  particularly 
the  case  with  theology,  for  the  advantageous  pursuit 
of  which  the  student  must  have  a  previous  knowledge  of 
Greek. 

The  academy  of  the  olden  time,  the  preparatory 
department  of  the  denominational  college,  and  the  college 
course  in  vogue  to  the  late  eighties  and  early  nineties, 
led  directly  and  easily  to  the  study  of  theology;  Greek, 
Latin,  mathematics,  and  moral  philosophy  in  some  form 
were  staples  of  instruction,  with  a  certain  amount  of 
prescribed  work  in  the  modern  languages,  English,  his- 
tory, and  the  natural  sciences.  Now — how  great  is  the 
change ! 

In  1890  nearly  one-third  of  all  our  students  in  secondary 
schools  still  were  in  academies  and  private  high  schools; 
in  1910,  only  one  student  in  eight.  Furthermore,  of  the 
117,400  students  reported  in  secondary  institutions  of 
private  support  in  1910,  46,253  were  in  non-sectarian 
schools;  71,147  were  reported  in  denominational  schools, 
distributed  as  follows: 


the  State  Universities,"  in  Education  arid  National  Character,  published 
by  the  Religious  Education  Association  (1908);  "The  State  Universities 
and  Theology,"  The  Outlook,  Vol.  XC  (1908),  pp.  27-29. 


Theology 

205 

Denomination 

Schools 

Instructors 

students 

Roman  Catholic 

630 
74 
67 
71 
67 
25 
48 
35 
42 
84 

3,486 
415 
420 
658 
300 
129 
229 
198 
229 
682 

30,124 
6,983 
6,007 
4,788 
3,570 
2,281 
2  243 

Baptist 

Methodist 

Episcopal 

Presbyterian 

Methodist  Episcopal  South .... 
Friends      

Congregational 

Lutheran 

Other  denominations 

2,322 
3,339 
9,490 

Total 

1,143 

6,746 

71,147 

Of  this  number  probably  about  30,000  were  boys. 
In  the  same  year  32,830  boys  of  secondary  rank  were 
reported  in  ''private  universities  and  colleges,"  of  which 
a  considerable  proportion  were  under  denominational 
control.  While  exact  figures  are  not  obtainable,  it  is 
easy  to  see  how  small  a  number  of  boys  of  secondary 
rank  (50,000  would  be  a  fair  guess)  in  comparison  with 
the  whole  number  of  boys  pursuing  secondary  studies 
(512,5800  were  in  the  classes  of  institutions  in  which  the 
claims  of  the  ministry  may  be  presumed  to  have  been 
kept  before  them,  and  in  which  the  course  is  so  laid  out 
as  to  lead  easily  to  the  study  of  theology. 

In  1909-10  students  of  Greek  were  reported  in  only 
353  out  of  10,213  pubhc  high  schools;  in  twenty-eight 
twenty-ninths  of  our  public  high  schools  there  was  no 
Greek  at  all.  The  number  of  students  of  Greek  among 
the  915,061  students  in  public  high  schools  was  5,511,  of 
whom  3,079  were  boys.  In  the  private  secondary  schools 
at  the  same  time  5,228  students  were  taking  Greek,  of 


1  Distributed  as  follows:  in  public  high  schools,  398,525;  public 
normal  schools,  2,767;  public  universities  and  colleges,  9,786;  private 
high  schools,  55,474;  private  normal  schools,  977;  private  universities 
and  colleges,  .32,830;  manual-training  schools,  12,221. 


200  Humanistic  Studies 

whom  4,395  were  boys;  possibly  nearly  as  many  more 
were  enrolled  in  Greek  classes  in  college  preparatory  de- 
partments. On  the  most  favorable  showing  we  can  hardly 
suppose  that  more  than  twelve  or  thirteen  thousand  boys 
of  secondary  rank  are  studying  Greek  in  the  United  States 
at  the  present  time. 

Seven  students  out  of  eight  in  secondary  schools  are 
now  in  public  high  schools.  The  percentage  of  graduates 
who  make  the  high-school  course  preparatory  to  college 
has  increased  in  the  past  decade.^  Recruits  for  theology 
should  come  chiefly  from  the  colleges  and  the  literary 
departments  of  the  universities.  The  best  men  of  college 
rank  who  are  attracted  to  the  ministry  and  have  not  had 
Greek  in  the  preparatory  school,  having  looked  over  the 
course  of  special  training  leading  to  the  profession,  gener- 
ally conclude  that  they  cannot  meet  the  requirements  of 
preparation  in  a  reasonable  time,  and  turn  aside  to  other 
callings.  Those  who,  without  a  classical  training  in 
earlier  years,  resolve  in  college  to  devote  their  lives  to 
religious  work,  find  themselves  handicapped  not  only  by 
lack  of  knowledge  but  by  limitations  in  their  vocabulary 
and  in  the  ability  to  express  themselves  effectively.  The 
secularizing  of  American  education  has  put  a  greater 
handicap  on  preparation  for  theology  than  upon  that  for 
any  other  caUing.  To  secure  recruits  of  the  right  quality 
and  sufficient  number  from  the  ranks  of  college  men  who 
have  not  had  Greek  is  manifestly  impracticable;  and  this 
aspect  of  the  problem  is  complicated  still  further  by  the 
enrolment  of  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  college  students 
of  the  country  in  state  institutions. 

On  the  part  of  theological  seminaries  there  has  lately 

I  The  percentage  of  high-school  graduates  prepared  for  college  was 
30.28  in  1900,  35.55  in  1905,  and  33.95  in  1910. 


Theology  207 

been  manifested  a  tendency  to  meet  the  situation  by 
relaxing  the  requirements  in  Greek,  if  not  also  in  Hebrew, 
for  their  students.  With  how  great  danger  this  alter- 
native is  fraught,  not  alone  for  the  future  of  theological 
study  but  for  the  influence  of  the  ministry,  has  been  made 
clear  by  the  papers  already  presented  in  this  discussion. 
It  is  no  less  impracticable  to  think  of  restoring  the  con- 
ditions of  study  prevalent  in  the  last  century,  and  of 
offsetting  by  competition  of  private  institutions  the  trend 
of  the  public  high  school  away  from  the  studies  leading  to 
theology.  The  only  adequate  remedy  is  that  suggested 
by  the  situation.  Greek  must  be  restored  to  our  public 
high  schools;  then  the  number  of  young  men  having 
Greek  will  be  large  enough  to  furnish  a  full  quota  to 
theological  study.  It  is  not  necessary  that  a  decision  to 
study  theology  be  reached  in  the  period  of  secondary 
study.  Let  Greek  be  offered  in  our  public  schools  by 
suitable  teachers  under  such  conditions  that  the  pursuit 
of  it  will  not  be  a  handicap  in  completing  a  course  for 
graduation,  and  enough  students  will  take  it  to  make  a 
college  constituency  from  which  abundant  recruits  for 
theology  can  be  chosen. 

The  justification  of  the  support  of  secondary  as  of 
other  schools  by  taxation  lies  in  the  service  that  will  be 
rendered  to  society  by  those  who  have  received  the 
benefits  which  they  confer.  If  our  secularized  education 
fails  to  provide  society  with  adequate  leadership  on  the 
religious  side,  does  not  the  remedy  lie  with  the  taxpayers  ? 
Do  we  not  need  a  ministry,  educated  in  the  best  sense  of  the 
word,  as  much  as  we  need  trained  lawyers,  physicians, 
and  engineers  ?  Surely  no  one  would  maintain  that  the 
moral  and  religious  interests  are  less  to  be  safeguarded 
than  the  material  interests  of  society;  else  why  is  it  agreed 


208  Humanistic  Studies 

among  reasonable  men  that  church  property  should  be 
exempt  from  taxation  ? 

If  the  situation  is  once  understood,  it  will  be  righted. 
Teachers  and  school  administrators  as  a  class  are  religious 
men,  and  American  communities  are  at  heart  not  indiffer- 
ent to  the  claims  of  religion.  Let  us  suppose  that  in  a 
given  city  the  clergy  and  the  teachers  should  unite  in 
requesting  that  provision  be  made  for  Greek  in  the  high 
school,  even  if  the  number  pursuing  the  study  should  be 
below  that  fixed  for  the  forming  of  classes  in  "practical" 
subjects;  can  we  believe  that  the  average  board  of  educa- 
tion would  resist  the  appeal  ? 

The  amount  of  Greek  that  candidates  for  theology 
acquire  after  entering  college  or  the  theological  school 
can  never  be  made  adequate  without  the  sacrifice  of 
other  work  of  fundamental  importance.  The  service 
which  our  institutions  of  secondary  and  collegiate  educa- 
tion are  rendering  in  return  for  their  support  will  not  be 
complete  until  there  is  such  a  readjustment  as  shall  put 
the  study  of  theology  on  as  favorable  a  footing  as  other 
professional  study.  The  first  step  in  such  a  readjust- 
ment must  be  the  introduction  of  the  study  of  Greek  more 
generally  into  the  public  high  schools,  a  step  which  does 
not  lack  justification  also  on  other  grounds. 


V.    CONCLUDING  REMARKS 

PRESIDENT  JAMES  B.  ANGELL,  Chairman 
University  of  Michigan 

I  have  myself  been  inclined  to  attribute  the  decline 
in  the  number  of  candidates  for  the  ministry  primarily 
to  the  transition  which  our  theology  and  our  biblical 
criticism  are  now  going  through.     Many  a  student  who 


Theology  209 

means  to  live  a  religious  life  is  not  sufficiently  settled  in 
his  views  of  certain  questions  to  dogmatize  upon  them  as 
a  preacher  might  be  expected  to  do. 

I  think,  nevertheless,  that  there  is  ground  for  the  thesis 
that  the  lack  of  training  in  Greek  in  so  many  schools 
prevents  some  men  from  inclining  to  study  theology.  I 
wish  I  felt  more  certain  that  the  knowledge  of  that  fact 
will  lead  school  boards  and  private  schools  to  reinstate 
instruction  in  Greek  where  it  has  been  dropped. 

I  am  hoping  that,  when  our  churches  have  passed 
through  the  period  of  transition  and  have  become  fairly 
settled  on  some  common  ground,  young  men  will  not  in 
so  many  cases  as  now  hesitate  about  becoming  preachers 
and  pastors.  They  will  then  demand  instruction  in  Greek 
as  a  matter  of  course. 


SYMPOSIUM  V 

THE     VALUE     OF     HUMANISTIC,    PARTICULARLY     CLASSICAL, 
STUDIES  AS   A   TRAINING    FOR   MEN   OF  AFFAIRS 

I.    LETTERS 

1.     FROM  THE  HONORABLE  JAMES  BRYCE 
Ambassador  of  Great  Britain 

It  is  matter  of  great  regret  to  me  that  I  cannot  attend 
your  Conference,  for  the  longer  I  watch  the  currents  that 
are  now  affecting  the  higher  education,  the  more  I  lament 
the  diminished  attention  that  is  today  given  to  classical 
studies.  Most  people  seem  to  think  that  a  language  no 
longer  used  by  a  nation  as  its  daily  speech  is  a  dead 
language  and  has  no  value  for  the  modern  world.  But 
the  truth  is  that  no  language  which  enshrines  a  great 
literature  and  through  which  the  thought  of  the  past 
speaks  to  the  thinkers  of  the  present  can  ever  die.  Such 
a  language  is  far  more  alive  than  those  spoken  languages 
which  contain  little  worth  reading.  Now  in  the  Greek 
and  Roman  writers  we  find  much  that  is  not  only  equal 
in  intrinsic  excellence  to  anything  produced  since,  but 
much  that  is  quickening  and  stimulating  us  just  because 
it  is  ancient,  because  it  carries  us  into  regions  of  thought 
and  beUef  which  differ  profoundly  from  those  of  modern 
times.  I  do  not  say  that  the  classics  will  make  a  dull 
man  bright,  nor  that  a  man  ignorant  of  them  may  not 
display  the  highest  literary  or  the  highest  practical  gifts, 
as  indeed  many  have  done.  Natural  genius  can  over- 
leap all  deficiencies  of  training.  But  a  mastery  of  the 
literature  and  history  of  the  ancient  world  makes  every 
one  fitter  to  excel  than  he  would  have  been  without  it, 
for  it  widens  the  horizon,  it  sets  standards  unlike  our 


Practical  Affairs  211 

own,  it  sharpens  the  edge  of  critical  discrimination,  it 
suggests  new  lines  of  constructive  thought.  It  is  no 
doubt  more  directly  helpful  to  the  lawyer  or  the  clergy- 
man or  the  statesman  than  it  is  to  the  engineer  or  the 
banker.  But  it  is  useful  to  all,  for  the  man  of  affairs 
gains,  like  all  others,  from  whatever  enables  him  better 
to  comprehend  the  world  of  men  around  him  and  to  dis- 
cern the  changes  that  are  passing  on  in  it. 

Without  disparaging  the  grammatical  and  philological 
study  of  Greek  and  Latin,  the  highest  value  a  knowledge 
of  these  languages  contains  seems  to  me  to  lie  less  in 
familiarity  with  their  forms  than  in  a  grasp  of  ancient 
life  and  ancient  thought,  in  an  appreciation  of  the  splendor 
of  the  poetry  they  contain,  in  a  sense  of  what  human 
nature  was  in  days  remote  from  our  own.  But  it  is  a 
mistake  to  live  so  entirely  in  the  present  as  we  are  apt  to 
do  in  these  days,  for  the  power  of  broad  thinking  suffers. 
It  is  not  the  historian  only  who  ought  to  know  the  past, 
nor  only  the  philosopher  and  the  statesman  who  ought 
to  ponder  the  future  and  endeavor  to  divine  it  by  recalling 
the  past  and  filling  his  mind  with  the  best  thought  which 
the  men  of  old  have  left  to  us. 

2.     FROM  JAMES  LOEB 
Formerly  of  Kuhn,  Loeb  &  Co.,  New  York 

That  a  classical  course  is  a  valuable  training  for  busi- 
ness life  has  always  seemed  to  me  a  self-evident  proposi- 
tion. This  question  has  been  discussed  often  and  at 
great  length  by  those  who  are  much  more  worthy  of  a 
hearing  than  I  am.  If  I  depart  from  the  habit  of  years, 
and  venture  to  send  a  message  to  your  learned  assembly, 
it  is  primarily  owing  to  repeated  urging.  I  find  my  only 
warrant  for  so  doing  in  the  thought  that  my  personal 


212  Humanistic  Studies 

experience  at  Harvard  University,  in  business,  and  now, 
last  but  best,  in  the  pursuit  of  res  dulciores  et  hum,aniores, 
gives  me  a  perspective  that  may  not  be  without  interest 
to  the  Conference. 

It  would  be  a  waste  of  your  time  and  of  my  energy, 
were  I  to  try  to  plead  the  cause  of  the  classics.  America 
does  not  stand  alone  in  its  decreasing  attention  to  Greek 
and  Latin.  Schoolmasters  and  professors  in  England, 
France,  and  Germany  make  the  same  complaint.  We 
must  not  close  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  the  prevalent 
methods  of  teaching  classical  literature  are  largely  to 
blame  for  this  decrease.  The  dry,  pedantic  insistence 
on  grammatical  and  syntactical  detail,  so  usual  in  high 
school  and  university,  has  driven  many  a  student  out 
of  the  fold.  It  is  asking  too  much  of  even  a  well-disci- 
plined lad  to  read  the  Prometheus  or  the  Antigone  in  this 
spirit.  His  eyes  must  be  opened  to  the  human  values 
and  to  the  aesthetic  charm  of  ancient  literature;  and  for 
this  the  teacher  is  often  too  incapable  or  too  unwilling. 
I  am  confident  that  the  younger  generation  of  teachers, 
who  are  now  coming  into  their  own,  and  who  have  "tasted 
the  dragon's  blood"  in  Greece  or  in  Italy,  will  inject  new 
life  into  their  subject,  or  rather,  that  they  will  understand 
how  to  show  forth  to  their  hearers  that  eternal  life  and 
beauty  of  the  classics  which  is  so  often  buried  under 
mountains  of  dry  philology. 

In  an  age  like  ours,  where  ambitious  youth  no  longer 
treads  the  cloistered  walk,  where  ''Make  Money,"  "Win 
Success,"  "Out-do  Croesus"  are  written  in  large  letters 
on  the  blackboard  of  school,  college,  and  university, 
usurping  the  place  of  the  'yvcoOi  aavrov,  how  can  we 
expect  people  to  find  value  in  Homer  or  Euripides,  in 
Caesar  or  Catullus? 


Practical  Affairs  213 

Success,  written  with  the  dollar  sign,  instead  of  with 
the  commoner,  but  more  harmless  sibilant,  is  the  shib- 
boleth of  our  day.  In  his  last  year's  Phi  Beta  Kappa 
oration^  President  Woodrow  Wilson,  of  Princeton,  said: 

Is  it  not  time  we  stopped  asking  indulgence  for  learning  and 
proclaimed  its  sovereignty  ?  Is  it  not  time  that  we  reminded 
the  college  men  of  this  country  that  they  have  no  right  to  any 
distinctive  place  in  any  community  unless  they  can  show  it  by 
intellectual  achievement?  that  if  a  university  is  a  place  for 
distinction  at  all,  it  must  be  distinguished  by  conquest  of  mind  ? 

Splendid!  But  what  does  the  average  undergraduate 
think  of  such  words  as  these  ?  "Stuff  and  nonsense;  very 
pretty  in  theory,  but  how  does  this  apply  to  my  case — 
to  me,  who  want  to  make  a  success  of  my  life?" 

We  have  made  the  path  of  education  too  smooth ;  our 
young  men  and  women  rush  over  it  on  the  soft  cushions 
of  hurrying  automobiles.  They  are  no  longer  forced  to 
face  that  healthy  struggle  for  knowledge  that  wearies 
the  body,  but  refreshes  the  mind.  Why,  there  are  col- 
leges and  universities  in  our  land  where  "original 
research"  is  recommended  to  young  people  as  a  profitable 
pastime  before  they  know  what  a  bibliography  looks 
like!  Most  things  can  be  popularized;  original  research 
cannot. 

Some  time  ago  I  had  the  pleasure  of  a  visit  from  a  quite 
recent  graduate  of  one  of  the  largest  New  England  uni- 
versities, who  is  now  taking  a  classical  course  at  Oxford. 
This  young  man,  who  had  distinguished  himself  on  the 
football  field  as  well  as  in  the  classroom,  was  thought 
worthy  of  an  appointment  to  a  Rhodes  Scholarship.  He 
means  to  study  theology  and  ultimately  to  return  home 
as  a  teacher.     Just  now  classics  are  his   chief  pursuit. 

1  Delivered  in  1907,  at  Harvard  University. 


214  Humanistic  Studies 

Our  talk  happened  to  drift  to  an  incident  in  modern 
history.  "Oh,"  said  my  young  friend,  "I  know  nothing 
at  all  of  modern  history."  With  the  same  engaging 
candor  and  honesty  he  protested  his  complete  ignorance 
of  mediaeval  history.  To  my  timid  suggestion  that  life 
at  Oxford  and  the  long  vacations  would  give  him  ample 
time  to  make  up  this  regrettable  lacuna  in  his  education 
he  archly  replied,  "Oh,  I  do  not  need  to  know  anything 
about  history,  because  I  shall  never  have  to  teach  it." — 
Q.D.V.! 

The  degree  of  A.B.  has  been  so  far  cheapened  that  the 
graduate  of  twenty-five  years  ago  reluctantly  admits 
the  graduate  of  today  into  his  intellectual  companion- 
ship. The  elective  system  has  overshot  its  mark  and  a 
decided  reaction  must  soon  set  in,  if  we  mean  to  uphold 
the  respectability  of  a  university  degree.  It  may  be 
good  business  to  encourage  young  men  to  take  their  A.B. 
in  three  years,  but  it  is  bad  pedagogics. 

The  constant  and  growing  abuse  of  a  free  choice  of 
subjects  is  slowly  but  surely  removing  the  props  of  solid 
intellectual  achievement.  "The  distinction  that  can  be 
gained  only  by  conquest  of  mind" — to  cite  President 
Wilson's  well-chosen  words  once  more — is  predicated  on 
a  much  more  thorough  general  education  than  the  Ameri- 
can undergraduate  brings  to  college.  Too  much  and, 
above  all,  too  early  "specialization"  is  a  further  obstacle 
to  his  acquiring  that  broader  and  fairer  culture  of  two 
or  three  generations  ago. 

Conservation  among  men,  and  between  men  and 
women,  is  steadily  losing  those  finer  qualities  which  make 
an  exchange  of  ideas  profitable  and  uplifting.  With  the 
absence  of  respect  for  authority,  which  characterizes  the 
youth  of  today,  we  are  fast  losing  that  respect  for  the 


Practical  Affairs  215 

dignity  of  our  own  work  Avhich  alone  can  give  that  work 
real  and  lasting  value.  The  foolish  attempt  to  keep 
abreast  of  the  so-called  literature  of  the  day,  of  those 
morbid,  pseudo-psychological  novels,  the  prying  and 
indelicate  memoirs — to  say  nothing  of  the  even  more 
pernicious  products  of  untutored  writers — would  be 
impossible,  were  the  taste  of  our  growing  youths  and 
maidens  formed  by  a  proper  study  of  Greek  and  Latin 
literature,  the  Bible,  and  the  classics  of  our  own  and 
other  languages.  The  applause  bestowed  on  the  deca- 
dent drama,  the  vulgar  comedy,  the  immoral  and  dirty 
play  would  turn  into  hisses,  were  the  audience  better 
acquainted  with  the  works  of  Aeschylus  and  Sophocles. 
Those  old  tragedies  served  a  great  moral  purpose  by 
focusing  motives  and  lime-lighting  consequences.  I 
venture  to  say  that  the  low  ebb  of  our  public  and  business 
ethics  is  due,  among  other  things,  to  the  absence  of  that 
fear  of  consequences  which  the  better  acquaintance  with 
the  dreaded  Molpa  of  the  ancients  would  necessarily 
beget  in  our  consciousness.  And  much  of  what  I  have 
said  applies  to  conditions  in  Europe  as  well  as  at  home — 
in  lesser  degree,  however,  because  Europe's  mighty  cul- 
tural inheritance  still  serves  as  a  bulwark  against  the 
encroachment  of  these  evils. 

A  thorough  groundwork  in  the  fundamentals  of  real 
culture,  followed  by  a  rigid  training  in  the  severer  dis- 
cipline of  honest  original  research,  of  some  sort,  is  the 
sine  qua  non  of  every  successful  life.  Whether  that  life 
be  devoted  to  science  or  letters,  to  theology  or  business, 
matters  not.  That  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  Greek 
and  Roman  literature  is  among  those  fundamentals  of 
real  culture  need  hardly  be  urged  here. 

Business   cannot   be   taught  theoretically.     The  real 


216  Humanistic  Studies 

school  for  business  is  business  itself — the  railway  shop, 
the  store,  the  factory,  or  the  bank.  "Business  colleges," 
good,  bad,  or  indifferent,  abound  in  our  country,  and 
recently  Harvard  and  other  universities  have  thought 
fit  to  establish  "Schools  of  Business  Administration" 
and  what-not  else  of  the  same  character.  A  deplorable 
misconception — I  am  bold  enough  to  say  it — of  the  true 
functions  of  a  university.  We  need  ideals  in  our  country. 
Shall  we  print  the  dollar  sign  on  our  Bachelor's  degrees 
and  flatter  their  holders  into  the  vain  belief  that  they  are 
better  equipped  for  money-earning  because  they  have 
spent  less  time  in  learning  lessons  that  mean  vastly  more 
for  the  inner  life? 

I  have  still  to  hear  of  the  young  man  whose  theoretical 
knowledge  of  bookkeeping  and  finance  and  international 
exchange  secured  him  better  pay,  or  a  position  of  greater 
trust,  than  that  given  the  lad  from  the  public  school. 
A  level-headed  college  graduate  is  better  worth  his  pay 
than  a  fellow  who  comes  from  a  business  college  with 
his  head  full  of  dummy  exchange  operations  and  make- 
believe  entries  on  a  ledger. 

An  old  friend  of  mine,  who  fought  in  the  Civil  War, 
and  who  still  clings  fondly  to  the  high-protection  fallacy, 
once  said  to  me,  when  I  had  just  entered  business  in  1888, 
"My  dear  boy,  you  know  more  in  theory  today  than 
you  are  likely  ever  to  know  in  practice."  My  young 
graduate  pride  rebelled  at  this,  but  thirteen  years'  experi- 
ence in  very  active  affairs  taught  me  that  the  time  spent 
at  Harvard  studying  history  of  finance,  political  econ- 
omy, and  international  law  might  as  well  have  been 
devoted  to  the  classics  for  all  the  practical  value  I  got 
out  of  those  worldlier  pursuits. 

The  great  and  legitimate  aim  of  a  business  man  is  to 


Practical  Affairs  217 

make  money,  to  provide  for  himself  and  his  family  such 
luxuries  and  comforts  as  his  tastes  and  social  standing 
demand.  But  when  a  man  has  reached  the  goal  of  his 
desires,  when  he  has  made  his  pile  and  desires  to  enjoy 
it,  then  comes  the  time  for  the  making  of  the  real  and 
only  balance  sheet.  Then  he  must  ask  himself,  "What 
are  my  resources,  now  that  I  have  everything  that  money 
can  buy  ?  What  are  my  spiritual  and  intellectual  assets  ? 
How  can  I  best  spend  what  is  left  to  me  of  life  ?  "  Lucky 
is  the  man  whose  early  training  fits  him  for  something 
more  than  the  golf-field,  or  the  tennis-court,  and  for 
something  better  than  the  gaming-table  when  his  days 
of  business  activity  are  over.  He  can  taste  the  gentler 
pleasures  that  await  him  in  his  study  and  by  the  blazing 
hearth-fire.  His  Sophocles  or  his  Plato,  his  Catullus 
or  his  Cicero,  will  make  the  winter  of  life  seem  like  its 
early  spring  when  the  greatest  struggle  he  knew  was  with 
the  elusive  rules  of  grammar  and  syntax.  This  busy 
world  of  ours  cannot  stop:  it  will  always  whirl  and  rush 
and  hustle.  But  some  of  us— and  the  more  the  better — 
must  learn  that  on  jone  side  of  the  rushing  stream  of  life 
lie  the  peaceful  backwaters,  in  which  the  clouds  and  the 
sun,  the  shrubs  and  the  birds  of  the  air  appear  reflected 
in  their  true,  undistorted  image,  gently  floating  on  the 
limpid  pool  of  reverie. 

3.  FROM  WILLIAM  SLOANE 

President  of  W.  and  J.  Sloane,  New  York 

A  classical  education  is  a  large  asset  for  any  business 
man.  His  equipment  for  his  life  work  is  that  much  better, 
and  will  prove  to  be  so  in  increasing  measure  as  he  rises 
to  positions  of  responsibility  and  influence  in  his  business 
and  elsewhere.  A  wider  horizon  means  greater  ability 
to  see  through  complex  situations,  to  understand  motives. 


218  Humanistic  Studies 

to  measure  men;  to  say  nothing  of  the  more  intelhgent 
interest  he  may  be  enabled  to  take  in  those  outside  matters 
whieh  increase  general  culture  in  the  community,  in  the 
state,  and  in  the  nation. 

An  American  man  of  affairs  is  hardly  in  the  same 
category  with  the  old-world  shopkeeper.  He  must  be 
w^ell  prepared  to  serve  his  day  and  generation  in  a  great 
variety  of  ways.  He  may  be  called  from  the  counter  to 
the  cabinet.  The  only  limitations  to  success  in  America 
are  those  of  capacity.  But  the  great  trouble  with  us  is 
that  we  are  forever  looking  for  the  short  cut.  This  char- 
acteristic has  caused  a  lack  of  thoroughness  in  our  edu- 
cational system  which  is  unfortunate.  If  a  man  can 
skim  over  history  and  economics,  and  a  modern  language 
or  two,  and  secure  a  college  degree,  he  is  ill  prepared  to 
perform  in  business  the  drudgery  of  an  apprenticeship, 
which  after  all  constitutes  the  only  basis  on  which  to  build. 
I  believe  that  the  slow  processes  of  translation  of  the 
classics  (which  in  my  opinion  should  be  compulsory  in 
the  academic  course  for  a  B.A.  degree)  make  good  train- 
ing for  the  boy  who  has  chosen  a  business  career.  This 
is  entirely  aside  from  the  advantage,  which  he  will  never 
enjoy  again,  of  communing  with  the  gods.  The  business 
man's  day  is  prosaic,  the  men  he  meets  are,  as  a  rule, 
men  of  little  or  no  schooling.  The  business  principles  he 
finds  are  not  always  in  accord  with  his  preconceived  ideas 
of  honesty;  there  isn't  much  art  or  poetry  in  it  all;  and 
unless  he  has  something  to  fall  back  upon,  some  back- 
ground to  his  life  and  thought,  some  such  continual  source 
of  quiet  comfort  and  pleasure  as  a  classical  education  will 
afford  him,  life  will  be  a  very  empty  thing;  while  business 
cares  and  business  successes  will  become  such  paramount 
issues  with  him  that  the  man  will  be  lost  in  his  pursuits. 


Practical  Affairs  219 

Again,  a  business  man  who  has  had  a  classical  educa- 
tion cannot  fail  to  remember  with  reverence  and  affection 
those  patient,  consecrated  men  who  taught  him  Latin 
and  Greek,  and  awoke  in  him  a  love  for  the  beautiful. 
Such  men  as  these,  with  ideals,  he  perhaps  no  longer 
meets  in  his  daily  vocation.  With  the  passing  j^ears  he 
may  have  forgotten  the  very  names  of  the  classics  he 
read  at  college,  but  the  memory  of  those  days,  of  those 
men,  of  their  enthusiasm  in  their  work,  has  had  its  effect 
on  the  man  himself  and  he  is  better  for  it,  and  I  believe 
a  better  business  man,  too,  for  unconsciously  he  has 
acquired  something  which  he  values  as  a  precious  pos- 
session, a  something  which  distinguishes  him  from  his 
fellows  and  makes  him  singularly  happy  in  his  work. 


II.    THE  STUDY  OF  THE  CLASSICS  AS  A  TRAINING 
FOR  MEN  OF  AFFAIRS 

THE  HONORABLE  JOHN  W.  FOSTER 
Washington,  D.C. 

My  experience  in  the  practice  of  law  and  my  obser- 
vation of  public  affairs  have  led  me  to  look  with  regret 
upon  the  diminishing  interest  in  our  higher  institutions 
of  learning  in  the  study  of  the  ancient  classics.  The 
modern  university  spirit  seems  to  tend  to  the  elective 
system  and  to  study  in  the  scientific  and  more  practical 
departments  of  knowledge.  I  doubt  very  much  whether 
it  is  wisest  to  leave  entirely  to  the  immature  youth  the 
selection  of  his  course  of  study.  So  also  it  may  be  better 
to  train. and  develop  the  mind  in  the  earlier  years  than  to 
store  it  with  knowledge,  which  may  well  come  later.  If 
the  university  is  to  maintain  its  proper  place  as  the  seat 
of  higher  learning,  Greek  and  Latin  should  not  be  rele- 


220  Humanistic  Studies 

gated  to  an  unimportant  position  in  the  curriculum,  nor 
their  study  discouraged. 

History  tells  us  of  the  unequaled  refinement  of  the 
Greek  race  in  the  days  of  Pericles.  Only  a  few  doubtful 
and  imperfect  specimens  of  the  chisel  of  Phidias  and  his 
school  remain,  and  the  skill  of  Apelles'  brush  is  entirely 
lost  to  us;  but  the  highest  evidence  of  the  art,  refinement, 
and  thought  of  that  golden  age  has  come  down  to  us 
unimpaired  in  the  Greek  language,  the  most  perfect 
achievement  of  the  human  race.  No  better  training 
for  the  youthful  mind  can  be  devised  than  the  study  of 
this  language  and  the  mastery  of  the  high  and  polished 
thoughts  which  it  has  preserved.  It  matters  not  if,  in  the 
resistless  hurry  of  our  practical  age,  the  Greek  which  we 
acquired  in  our  youth  passes  from  our  memory;  its 
influence  on  the  mind  will  never  be  obliterated. 

Lord  Brougham,  one  of  the  first  of  English  statesmen 
and  scholars  of  the  last  century,  in  his  inaugural  address 
as  rector  of  Glasgow  University,  said: 

Be  ye  assured  that  the  works  of  the  English  chisel  fall  not 
more  short  of  the  wonders  of  the  Acropolis,  than  the  best  pro- 
ductions of  modern  pens  fall  short  of  the  chaste,  finished,  nerv- 
ous, and  overwhelming  compositions  of  the  Greeks.  Be  equally 
sure  that,  with  hardly  an  exception,  the  great  things  of  poetry 
and  of  eloquence  have  been  done  by  men  who  have  cultivated 
the  mighty  exemplars  of  Athenian  genius  with  daily  and  with 
nightly  devotion. 

Also  that  other  distinguished  English  statesman  and 
scholar,  than  whom  no  one  of  his  generation  was  greater 
master  of  his  own  language,  Gladstone,  wrote: 

The  modern  European  civilization  from  the  Middle  Ages 
downward  is  the  compound  of  two  factors — the  Christian 
religion  for  the  soul  of  man  and  the  Greek  discipline  for  his 
mind  and  intellect. 


Practical  Affairs  221 

I  have  been  asked  to  discuss  "The  Value  of  the  Study 
of  the  Ancient  Classics  as  a  Training  for  Men  of  Affairs." 
The  quotations  which  I  have  just  made  from  two  of 
the  most  prominent  men  of  affairs  of  the  British  Empire 
show  the  high  estimate  which  they  placed  upon  the 
study  of  these  classics.  Every  man  at  the  bar  or  in 
public  life  who  was  made  familiar  with  the  Greek  and 
Latin  languages  in  his  early  education  knows  how 
valuable  that  study  has  been  to  him  in  his  professional 
career — not  on  account  of  the  technical  knowledge 
acquired,  for  that  will  pass  from  his  memory  unless  pre- 
served by  constant  reference  to  it — but  because  of  the 
discipline  which  the  study  gave  to  his  youthful  mind  in 
its  formative  state.  The  mere  routine  labor  of  the 
translation  of  Greek  and  Latin  authors  into  one's  ver- 
nacular, the  effort  to  ascertain  their  exact  meaning  and 
the  choice  of  the  words  which  correctly  express  that 
meaning,  constitute  a  mental  training  which  will  be  invalu- 
able to  the  future  lawyer  or  public  man.  True,  there 
is  some  such  training  in  the  acquisition  of  the  modern 
languages,  but  not  to  be  compared  with  the  study  of  the 
Greek,  the  most  highly  refined  and  perfect  of  all  the 
languages  for  the  expression  of  human  thought. 

I  recall  my  own  experience.  As  a  law  student  and 
for  some  time  after  being  admitted  to  the  bar,  it  was  my 
practice  to  carry  about  with  me  the  Latin  text  of  the  law 
maxims  extracted  from  Broom's  compilation,  in  order  to 
memorize  them  and  master  the  principles  therein  so 
concisely  and  clearly  stated.  My  main  object  in  this 
exercise  was  familiarly  to  acquaint  myself  with  the  ele- 
mentary doctrines  of  law  and  government,  for  practical 
application  in  my  profession.  But  the  exercise  was  of 
inestimable  value  to  me  in  forming  my  method  of  thought 


222  Humanistic  Studies 

and  expression.  Whatever  of  conciseness  and  clearness 
of  style  I  may  possess  is  to  be  largely  attributed  to  such 
study. 

Another  great  value  to  be  derived  from  a  study  of 
these  Latin  maxims  is  that  they  contain  the  concentrated 
wisdom  of  the  philosophers,  scholars,  and  publicists  of 
Greece  and  Rome.  We  of  the  English  race,  in  our  exal- 
tation of  the  common  law,  are  apt  to  forget  that  the 
foundation  of  almost  all  modern  jurisprudence  was  laid 
by  the  jurisconsults  of  the  Roman  Empire  in  the  com- 
pilation of  the  civil  law,  who  availed  themselves  of  the 
vast  storehouse  of  wisdom  gathered  from  more  ancient 
sources. 

Even  the  advocates  of  the  elective  curriculum  which 
requires  no  Greek  and  Latin  admit  that  the  study  of 
those  languages  in  the  writings  of  their  philosophers, 
poets,  and  scholars  tends  to  produce  the  most  cultured 
minds  and  the  highest  style  of  composition  and  expression. 
Amidst  the  great  wealth  of  material  in  the  ancient  classics 
which  has  come  down  to  us,  none  is  more  useful  to  the 
lawyer  and  the  public  man  than  the  works  of  Demos- 
thenes and  Cicero.  We  are  accustomed  to  look  upon 
them  only  as  orators  and  authors  of  treatises,  but  they 
were  lawyers  by  profession,  and  of  all  the  ancients  the 
most  successful  in  their  profession  of  those  whose  lives 
we  know  or  whose  works  have  been  preserved.  And 
they  also,  like  their  brethren  of  the  present  day,  were 
led  through  their  profession  into  public  affairs.  For  a 
considerable  portion  of  their  public  life  both  Demos- 
thenes and  Cicero  swayed  the  destinies  of  Athens  and 
of  Rome. 

Demosthenes  lived  about  one  hundred  years  after 
Pericles,  but  he  had  in  his  education  the  full  benefit  of 


Practical  Affairs  223 

the  refinement  and  literature  of  that  age  and  of  the  later 
days  of  Socrates  and  Plato.  Cicero  was  educated  by  the 
most  eminent  teachers  and  philosophers  of  his  day,  and 
he  perfected  his  education  in  Athens  and  Asia  Minor. 
Many  of  the  forensic  efforts  of  these  two  men  have  been 
saved  from  the  wreck  of  time,  and  are  available  for  the 
study  of  lawyers  and  statesmen.  They  are  conceded 
to  be  among  the  choicest  productions  of  the  human  mind 
in  force  of  expression,  beauty  of  style,  pure  philosophy, 
juridical  wisdom,  and  statecraft.  It  is  well  worth  while 
for  our  public  men  to  master  the  Greek  and  Latin  in 
order  to  study  the  productions  of  these  great  lawyers, 
orators,  and  statesmen  in  their  native  tongues,  unimpaired 
in  their  force  and  elegance  by  translation. 

I  have  referred  to  the  training  derived  from  the  trans- 
lation of  the  dead  languages,  in  the  accuracy  of  expression 
which  it  requires,  and  the  habit  of  searching  for  the  true 
and  exact  meaning  of  the  author.  This  training  is  of 
prime  importance  to  all  those  who  have  to  do  with  the 
framing  or  the  interpretation  of  contracts,  charters, 
statutes,  or  treaties.  It  has  been  deeply  impressed  upon 
me  in  my  connection  with  public  affairs.  A  considerable 
portion  of  my  official  life  has  been  devoted  to  efforts  to 
reach  an  understanding  of  treaty  stipulations  which,  on 
account  of  their  vague  and  inexact  language,  have  given 
rise  to  conflicting  interpretations  which  threatened  open 
hostilities  between  otherwise  friendly  powers.  The  most 
fruitful  source  of  conflicting  interpretation  has  been  the 
attempt  in  our  treaties  with  Great  Britain  to  fix  our 
boundaries  with  Canada  and  to  define  our  respective 
rights. 

In  the  treaty  of  peace  and  independence  of  1783  it 
was  stipulated  that  in  order  "that  all  disputes  which 


224  Humanistic  Studies 

might  arise  in  the  future  on  the  subject  of  the  boundaries 
of  the  said  United  States  may  be  prevented,  it  is  hereby 
agreed  and  declared,  that  the  following  are  and  shall  be 

their  boundaries,   viz "      But  the  first  attempt 

to  put  this  stipulation  of  the  treaty  into  force  developed 
the  fact  that  the  language  used  was  so  vague  and  uncertain 
that,  owing  to  the  opposing  interpretations,  it  was  impos- 
sible to  put  it  into  effect;  and,  after  much  discussion, 
resort  was  had  to  arbitration  to  determine  what  was 
"the  true  intent"  of  the  treaty  as  to  the  initial  point  of 
the  boundary  line.  In  succeeding  years,  as  efforts  were 
made  to  establish  other  portions  of  the  boundary  under 
this  treaty,  the  varying  interpretations  placed  upon  its 
language  caused  much  embarrassment  and  ill-feeling. 

The  territorial  rights  of  the  United  States  and  Canada 
on  the  Pacific  coast,  the  discussion  of  which  had  caused 
the  campaign  cry  of  "Fifty-four  forty  or  fight,"  were 
sought  to  be  settled  by  the  treaty  of  1846,  but  the  uncer- 
tainty of  the  language  employed  for  that  purpose  caused 
bitter  contention,  only  to  be  allayed  by  submitting  the 
conflicting  claims  to  the  arbitration  of  the  emperor  of 
Germany  to  determine  "which  of  these  claims  is  most  in 
accordance  with  the  true  interpretation  of  the  treaty." 
Similar  trouble  as  to  the  respective  rights  of  the  two 
countries  in  Alaska  arose  out  of  the  proper  construction 
to  be  placed  upon  the  language  used  in  the  treaties  of 
1824  and  1825  between  the  United  States,  Russia,  and 
Great  Britain,  which  culminated  in  the  expensive  arbitral 
litigation  at  Paris  in  1893,  and  at  London  in  1903. 

The  most  conspicuous  illustration  of  the  defective 
character  of  treaty  language  is  to  be  found  in  the  recent 
agreement  of  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  to 


Practical  Affairs  225 

refer  to  The  Hague  Tribunal  the  meaning  of  the  words 
used  in  the  stipulations  of  the  treaty  of  1818  regulating 
their  respective  fishing  rights  in  the  Northwest  Atlantic 
waters.  After  nearly  a  century  of  diplomatic  corre- 
spondence, heated  local  controversy,  and  long  and  elabo- 
rated arguments  as  to  the  meaning  of  words,  it  has  been 
determined  to  organize  at  The  Hague  an  international 
tribunal,  before  which  the  meaning  of  the  words  in  dispute 
will  be  debated  by  the  most  learned  lawyers  of  the  two 
nations,  and  a  final  determination  secured. 

It  is  true  that  imperfect  geographic  knowledge  has 
been  responsible  in  some  measure  for  these  international 
misunderstandings,  but  the  greater  part  of  the  ill-feeling, 
arbitral  litigation,  and  expense  in  these  cases  could  have 
been  avoided,  if  the  negotiators  of  the  treaties  had  taken 
more  pains  or  had  possessed  the  capacity  to  express  their 
intent  in  more  precise  and  accurate  language.  This 
citation  of  international  controversies  with  our  northern 
neighbors  emphasizes  the  importance  of  having  our 
diplomatists  and  our  statesmen  in  the  Cabinet  and  in  the 
Senate  who  have  to  do  with  the  making  of  treaties,  well 
trained  and  expert  in  the  force  of  language  and  the  mean- 
ing of  words.  It  is  the  unanimous  testimony  of  educators 
and  professional  men  that  such  a  training  can  be  best 
acquired  by  a  patient  and  thorough  study  of  Greek  and 
Latin. 

I  heartily  re-echo  the  sentiment  heretofore  expressed 
in  these  Conferences  that  there  may  be  in  this  respect  a 
restoration  in  our  universities  and  colleges  of  the  old 
condition  of  things,  when  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts 
meant  classical  education. 


22G  Humanistic  Studies 

III.    THE  STUDY  OF  LATIN  AND  GREEK  AS  A 
TRAINING  FOR  PRACTICAL  LIFE 

CHARLES  R.  WILLIAMS 
Editor  of  the  Indianapolis  News 

The  purpose  of  education,  as  I  conceive  it,  is  to  make 
youth  conscious  of  its  vast  heritage,  and  to  train  its  powers 
so  as  most  effectually  to  appropriate  and  use  its  endow- 
ment. It  is  well  constantly  to  hark  back  to  foundation 
principles.  What  are  we  trying  to  do  in  all  the  process 
of  education  from  the  time  we  start  with  the  schoolboy, 
"creeping  like  snail  unwillingly  to  school,"  till  the  uni- 
versity sends  him  forth,  diploma  in  hand,  to  take  his  place 
in  the  ranks  of  active  endeavor  ?  We  wish  as  thoroughly 
and  as  quickly  as  possible  to  bring  him  into  harmony 
with  his  intellectual  surroundings,  to  raise  him  to  the 
present  average  of  the  intelligence  of  the  race,  nay,  in  the 
university  courses,  to  lift  him  above  the  average  so  that 
he  may  hope  to  be,  may  be  fitted  to  be,  a  leader,  not  a 
follower  in  the  race;  a  man  that  has  learned  through  the 
mastery  of  his  own  powers  and  inclinations,  through  the 
discipline  of  his  own  nature,  through  long  association 
with  the  best  that  the  world  has  thought  and  wrought, 
to  have  some  adequate  conception  of  life;  who  has  come 
to  "see  life  steadily  and  see  it  whole,"  or,  if  not  quite  that, 
who  has  had  formed  in  him  some  desire  and  aspiration  to 
attain  that  high  and  worthy  power. 

A  good  share  of  education,  nearly  all  that  can  be 
given  to  the  majority  of  our  youth,  is  of  an  essential, 
necessary  character,  such  as  every  citizen  ought  to  have. 
Most  pupils  are,  to  say  the  least,  not  geniuses,  not  even 
talented.  All  that  can  be  done  for  them  in  their  school 
years,  it  seems  to  me,  is  to  give  them  thorough  instruc- 
tion in  the  essential  elements  of  education  and  to  quicken 


Practical  Affairs  227 

in  them  the  desire  for  better  things — to  give  them  in 
some  degree  the  spirit  of  knowledge,  which  is  ''that  you 
must  base  your  conclusions  on  adequate  grounds." 

Already  when  the  lads  reach  the  college  or  university 
the  work  of  selection  has  gone  far.  Generally  speaking, 
only  those  seek  the  higher  courses  of  instruction  who  are 
above  the  average  intellectually,  at  least  in  their  desire 
for  knowledge  and  training  or  in  their  aims  or  ambitions 
for  their  mature  life.  But  for  the  most  of  the  students, 
even  in  the  higher  courses,  the  spirit  of  instruction  remains 
the  same;  only  with  ampler  view,  with  wider  prospect, 
with  larger  understanding.  The  minds  are  still  immature, 
the  accomplishment  slight,  the  discipline  of  powers  par- 
tial and  often  misdirected.  It  is  not  knowledge  of  facts 
that  is  needed  most,  so  much  as  it  is  grounding  in  prin- 
ciples, right  attitude  of  mind,  training  of  powers  in  appli- 
cation, and  in  appreciation  of  what  is  right  and  good,  of 
what  is  worthy  and  best.  And  along  with  this  there 
needs  to  be,  if  best  results  are  to  be  attained,  constant 
inculcation,  by  precept  and  example,  by  spirit  and  power, 
of  honesty  of  thinking,  honesty  of  speech,  honesty  of 
action — the  love  of  truth,  the  scorn  of  a  lie.  To  my 
notion,  it  is  quite  as  important  to  have  instruction  so 
permeated  with  the  atmosphere  of  right  purpose,  and  the 
love  of  all  things  true  and  honest,  and  of  good  report, 
that  its  constant  endeavor  and  effect  shall  be  to 

teach  high  tliought,  and  amiable  words, 
And  love  of  truth,  and  all  that  makes  a  man. 

"Three  things  Yale  helped  to  make  William  Howard 
Taft,"  said  President  Hadley  at  the  recent  notable  Yale 
banquet  in  New  York,  "a  man,  a  straightforward  man, 
and  a  man  of  high  intellectual  ideals."     He  added:   "The 


228  Humanistic  Studies 

central  problem  for  our  colleges  today  is  to  see  that  we 
give  the  same  help  and  stimulus  to  those  who  now  come 
to  us." 

We  have  been  inclined,  especially  in  the  last  few 
decades,  to  place  the  greatest  stress  upon  the  practical 
life.  Time  was  in  our  earlier  days  when  men  regarded 
the  pursuit  of  righteousness  as  of  paramount  and  domi- 
nating interest.  Our  ideal  then,  the  ideal  at  least  that 
we  loved  to  exalt  and  to  proclaim,  was  the  life  of  plain 
living  and  high  thinking.  Is  it  too  much  to  say  that  the 
popular  ideal  today  is  rather  the  life  of  plain  thinking 
and  high  living?  Does  the  intellectual  life,  do  the  con- 
cerns of  the  spirit  bulk  as  large  in  our  thought,  in  our 
approval,  as  aforetime?  Is  not  it  the  prevaiUng  senti- 
ment of  the  youth  of  the  period  that  the  great  thing  in 
life  is  to  get  on,  to  lead  in  material  accomplishment,  to 
put  money  in  one's  purse? 

For  years  the  gospel  of  strenuosity  had  been  dinned 
into  our  ears  with  inescapable  iteration;  and  we  of  all 
peoples,  by  reason  of  our  temperament  and  the  tendency 
of  our  thought,  have  needed  such  preaching  least  of  all. 
The  very  conditions  and  opportunities  of  our  life,  with  a 
virgin  continent  to  enter  into  and  possess,  have  set  the 
blood  coursing  through  our  veins  in  a  very  fever  of 
impetuosity,  and  made  us  avid  of  material  conquest  and 
achievement.  With  so  great  possibilities  demanding 
development  and  offering  so  munificent  rewards  to  those 
that  should  succeed,  it  is  no  wonder  that  young  men  of 
energy  and  enterprise  and  initiative  have  been  impatient 
to  enter  the  lists  and  to  win  their  spurs  in  the  sort  of 
activity  which  the  times  seemed  most  highly  to  regard. 
It  is  no  wonder,  perhaps,  that  in  the  swift  revolution  of 
thought,  the  breaking  up  of  old  habits  of  mind,  of  old 


Practical  Affairs  229 

forms  of  faith,  which  the  marvelous  development  of 
science  has  gendered,  and  the  new  mastery  of  the  powers 
of  nature  has  fostered,  it  is  no  wonder,  perhaps,  I  sa}^ 
that  the  material  side  of  life  has  come  to  occupy  so  dis- 
proportionate a  share  in  the  thought  and  ambitions  of  the 
age.  Its  favors  are  so  obvious  and  so  convenient;  it  is 
so  good  to  be  lapped  in  ease,  to  be  luxuriously  housed, 
to  be  clad  in  purple  and  fine  linen,  to  have  one's  heart's 
desire ! 

And  so  our  verj^  education  has  tended— has  it  not  ? — to 
be  materiahzed ;  has  come  more  and  more — has  it  not  ? — 
to  exalt  the  immediately  useful  and  practical — the  utili- 
tarian— side  of  instruction.  The  old  college  education 
had  at  least  an  ideal  of  culture.  It  began  somewhere, 
it  proceeded  by  orderly  sequence  of  courses,  through 
clearly  defined  territory,  toward  a  definite  goal.  That 
goal  was  trained  and  disciplined  manhood — a  mind  stored 
with  much  knowledge  of  the  sources  of  our  culture;  a 
mind  .with  all  its  powers,  at  least  somewhat,  tested;  a 
mind  that  had  been  made  conscious  of  its  capacities  and 
of  its  ignorances,  that  had  been  disciplined  in  the  ways 
of  attaining  knowledge;  a  mind  brought  into  some  reason- 
able frame  toward  the  great  and  obstinate  questionings 
of  the  soul;  and  a  character  established  on  the  eternal 
foundations  of  principle  and  morality.  That  was  the 
old  ideal,  as  I  conceive  it.  Surely  that  was  a  very  noble 
ideal.  Of  course  it  was  only  measurably  attained  or 
attainable,  but  it  moved  on  before  the  hosts  of  youth 
seeking  escape  from  the  bondage  of  immaturity  and  rus- 
ticity, of  convention  and  prejudice,  of  sensualized  desire 
and  low  ambitions,  a  pillar  of  cloud  by  day  and  a  pillar 
of  fire  by  night,  leading  steadily  toward  the  promised 
land  of  the  enfranchised  human  spirit. 


230  Humanistic  Studies 

But  in  the  multiplicity  of  courses  that  the  college  offers 
today,  in  the  clamor  of  appeal  of  its  diverse  and  diver- 
gent departments,  what  ideal  controls  and  co-ordinates 
the  whole  ?  I  trust  I  speak  not  in  the  tone  of  the  hope- 
less conservative,  of  the  mere  laudator  temporis  acti,  to 
whom  the  old,  because  it  is  old,  seems  good,  and  the  new, 
because  it  is  new,  portends  degeneracy.  I  have  not  that 
temper  of  mind  at  all,  I  hope.  I  know  that  the  colleges 
and  universities  are  greater  and  better  in  unnumbered 
ways  than  they  used  to  be.  But  what  is  the  ideal  of 
their  courses?  This  I  do  know,  that  it  is  possible  in 
these  days  of  so  large  freedom  of  electives  for  men  to 
graduate  with  high  honors  from  some  of  our  higher  insti- 
tutions who,  with  all  their  equipment  of  particular 
knowledge,  with  all  their  specialized  power,  are  devoid 
of  culture  and  possess  no  philosophy  of  life.  Doubtless 
they  know  more  about  some  things  than  the  graduates 
of  the  older  day  knew,  but  they  know  less  about  every- 
thing— the  universe,  the  majestic  movement  of  human 
culture  from  its  far-off  sources  in  the  past,  increasing 
with  the  broadening  times,  to  its  present  multitudinous 
volume. 

Not  infrequently  we  hear  it  asserted  that  it  makes 
little  difference  what  a  young  man  studies,  so  only  that 
he  studies  and  learns  to  study  in  the  right  way.  All 
roads  lead  to  Rome,  we  are  reminded.  So  any  subject 
pursued  diligently,  we  are  assured,  will  certainly  bring 
the  student  to  efficient  mastery  of  his  intellectual  powers. 
Well,  let  us  freely  admit  that  there  is  something,  nay,  a 
good  deal,  in  this  theory;  and  yet  there  is  a  difference.  A 
student  may  discipline  his  mental  powers  in  the  study 
and  investigation  of  subjects  which  in  the  end  have  given 
him  little  more  than  discipline,  power  for  further  effort, 


Practical  Affairs  231 

but  that  have  left  in  his  mind,  made  part  of  his  soul-hfe, 
to  be  the  furniture  of  his  thought  and  the  subject  of  his 
meditation,  almost  nothing  that  he  cares  to  remember, 
almost  nothing  that  has  become  of  the  very  texture 
of  his  inner  life.  The  range  of  knowledge  is  so  vast,  its 
lines  extend  with  so  many  ramifications,  interlacing  and 
driving  wide  apart,  to  the  ends  of  the  world,  that  no  one 
can  ever  hope  to  compass  it  all;  much  less  in  the  years 
of  his  tutelage.  Of  course,  no  one  line  of  study  is  best 
for  the  best  development  of  every  mind.  There  must 
and  should  be  choice  and  variety  to  answer  the  needs  of 
varieties  of  gifts.  The  higher  institutions  have  been 
wise  in  recognizing  this  requirement,  and  so  enlarging 
and  enriching  their  curricula.  But,  after  all,  have  not 
they  moved  too  precipitately  in  this  direction?  Have 
not  they  given  to  j^outh,  fickle  and  uncertain  in  its  bent, 
too  great  and  too  early  freedom  of  selection?  Have 
not  they  allowed  specializing  and  consequent  narrowing 
of  intellectual  interest  to  begin  too  soon  ?  Have  not  they, 
in  the  flush  of  zeal  for  the  new  learning,  gone  too  far  and 
too  fast  in  encouraging  the  abandonment  of  the  old  ways 
and  the  old  paths  ?  Does  not  the  experience  of  the  ages 
of  successful  tuition,  after  all,  count  for  anything  ?  Should 
not  the  wisdom  of  the  elders  have  some  weight — far  more 
than  it  has  seemed  to  have  in  late  years — in  guiding, 
counseling,  and  directing  callow  youth  in  the  courses  that 
promise  most  for  their  best  development  ? 

It  does  make  a  difference,  a  very  great  and  momen- 
tous difference,  to  my  notion,  what  a  youth  studies  in 
his  formative  and  impressionable  years.  He  is  to  gain 
discipline,  he  is  to  win  mastery  over  himself,  to  learn  to 
use  his  intellectual  powers;  but  if  he  can  attain  these 
necessary  ends  and  at  the  same  time  be  adding  vastly 


232  Humanistic  Studies 

to  his  spiritual  resources,  to  the  comfort  of  liis  soul,  to 
the  joy  of  his  true  life  in  the  years  to  come,  when  the  cares 
and  responsibilities  and  distractions  of  professional  and 
business  activity  shall  absorb  his  time  and  energy,  should 
not  those  subjects  for  study  be  preferred  which  shall 
enable  him  most  easily  to  bring  about  these  most  desir- 
able results  ?  Let  us  never  long  leave  out  of  our  thought 
that  life  is  not  mere  getting  and  spending,  mere  sowing 
and  reaping,  mere  material  success  of  whatever  form. 
That  is  only  the  basis  for  something  better  and  higher 
and  more  enduring. 

And  so,  especially  for  the  young  men  that  hope  to  be 
leaders  in  the  professional  and  business  life  of  the  time, 
in  finance  and  affairs  of  state — in  practical  life,  in  a  word 
— those  studies  are  to  be  preferred  which  shall  make  him 
more  a  man,  give  him  a  wider  outlook,  a  larger  prospect 
of  life,  quicken  his  power  of  vision,  enlarge  his  range  of 
sympathy  and  appreciation,  and  bring  him  into  fullest 
consciousness  of  the  sources  and  development  of  the  cul- 
ture we  enjoy.  It  may  be  tremendously  interesting,  to 
be  sure,  to  be  able  to  determine  the  distance  of  the  sun 
from  the  earth  or  to  measure  the  diameter  of  the  moon; 
power  of  observation  and  a  magnified  sense  of  the  miracles 
of  nature's  adjustments  all  about  us  may  doubtless  come 
from  microscopic  study  of  the  eye  of  a  wasp  or  of  the 
dehcate  whorls  of  a  lichen.  But,  after  all,  what  do  such 
investigations  furnish  the  mind  withal  besides  the  added 
power  except  just  the  facts  ascertained?  How  have 
they,  except  in  infinitesimal  degree,  made  a  man  more  a 
man,  or  helped  prepare  him  for  his  life  among  men  ? 
And  never  more  than  in  this  age  of  crowded  activities,  of 
enlarging  governmental  functions,  of  militant  socialistic 
agitation  by  half-educated  theorists  and  lop-sided  senti- 


Practical  Affairs  233 

mentalists,  was  there  need  of  men  that  know  the  world 
was  not  made  yesterday  nor  the  day  before. 

Pope  voiced  a  profound  truth  when  he  declared  that 
"the  proper  study  of  mankind  is  man";  and  some  wise 
man,  whose  name  I  do  not  now  recall,  uttered  the  dictum: 
"There  is  nothing  noble  in  the  world  but  man;  there  is 
nothing  noble  in  man  but  mind."  Whether  or  not  we 
accept  that  as  wholly  true,  we  must  unquestionably 
recognize  that  in  it  lurks  great  truth.  What  man  has 
been,  what  man  is,  what  he  can  hope  to  be — is  there  any 
other  theme  of  such  enthralling  interest,  any  other  field 
of  investigation  that  can  so  widen  the  spiritual  horizon, 
that  can  exert  so  humanizing  an  influence  ?  It  embodies 
the  whole  accomplishment  of  the  race,  in  civil  society,  in 
religion,  in  letters,  and  in  art. 

And  it  is  into  just  this  field  of  investigation  that  the 
studj'  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  literatures  and  polities 
conducts  us  with  enticing  appeal  and  supreme  authority. 
It  is  no  accident,  no  assumption  of  conceit,  no  pedant's 
caprice,  that  named  the  Greek  and  Latin  courses  "the 
humanities."  That  title  is  the  expression  of  exact  and 
suggestive  verity.  In  these  courses  certainly  we  are 
studying  humanity  in  concrete  manifestation  and  in 
abundant  wealth  and  variety  of  intellectual  and  spiritual 
achievement.  While  the  life  presented  has  all  the  air  of 
maturity  and  presupposes  antecedent  ages  of  preparation, 
yet  for  us  it  has  all  "the  freshness  of  the  early  world." 
For  us  it  presents  the  foundations  on  which  our  civiliza- 
tion is  built,  the  germ  out  of  which  our  culture  has  devel- 
oped. Our  jurisprudence  recognizes  principles  estab- 
lished by  the  Greek  and  Roman  lawgivers;  our  municipal 
administrators  could  find  much  to  emulate  in  ancient 
methods;    our  philosophers  still  quote  the  authority  of 


234  Humanistic  Studies 

Socrates  and  Plato  and  Aristotle;  our  literary  forms  were 
given  to  us  by  the  poets  and  orators  and  historians  that 
made  Greece  famous;  our  art  tests  itself  by  comparison 
with  the  scanty  derelicts  of  the  studios  of  antiquity. 
How  can  one  possibly  have  appreciation  of  the  higher 
things  in  modern  life  who  has  made  no  thorough  study 
of  the  sources  from  which  these  have  sprung  or  in  which 
they  have  found  inspiration? 

And  there  is  no  way  to  study  these  sources  so  effective 
as  to  study  them  in  the  original  languages.  The  very 
fact  that  the  languages  are  so  different  from  our  own,  that 
their  content  is  so  remote  and  alien  to  present  moods, 
and  that  therefore  progress  in  their  mastery  is  slow  and 
laborious,  adds  to  their  value  as  disciplinary  material 
and  deepens  the  impression  that  the  knowledge  they 
convey  and  the  wisdom  they  impart  make  on  the  mind 
and  the  memory.  A  man  in  after-life  may  forget  the 
declensions  and  the  conjugations,  may  lose  power  indeed 
to  read  or  translate,  but  the  effect  of  the  study  on  his 
mental  development,  the  knowledge  of  men  and  the  world 
that  he  thereby  gained  directly  or  indirectly,  the  uplift 
of  soul,  the  widened  vision — these  have  entered  into 
and  become  a  part  of  his  being,  that  shall  never  leave 
him  more.  They  have  helped  to  give  him  an  under- 
standing of  life,  a  grasp  of  principles,  a  consciousness  of 
the  solidarity  of  the  race  which  otherwise  he  would  have 
failed  to  gain,  or  at  least  to  gain  so  strongly  and  dis- 
tinctly. ''Will  such  studies  make  anachronisms  of  us?" 
asks  Mr.  Lowell,  "unfit  us  for  the  duties  and  the  busi- 
ness of  today  ?  I  can  recall  no  writer  more  truly  modern 
than  Montaigne,  who  was  almost  more  at  home  in  Athens 
and  Rome  than  in  Paris.  Yet  he  was  a  thrifty  manager 
of  his  estate  and  a  most  competent  mayor  of  Bordeaux." 


Practical  Affairs  235 

Unless  a  student  is  dull  indeed  of  comprehension  he 
will  have  learned  by  his  contact  with  the  ancient  world, 
by  his  pursuit  of  the  humanities,  that  the  problems  of 
government  and  sociology,  the  just  division  of  powers, 
the  distribution  of  wealth,  the  relations  of  classes  to  one 
another,  the  incidence  of  taxation,  and  the  control  of 
great  estates  are  not  new  problems  peculiar  to  this  age 
and  continent.  He  will  thus  be  prepared  to  deal  with 
them  with  larger  intelligence,  with  wiser  patience;  he 
will  not  be  carried  away  with  every  wind  of  doctrine 
fanned  by  the  flippant  but  ignorant  mountebank  of  yes- 
terday, nor  prone  to  accept  the  long-ago  rejected,  but 
freshly  discovered,  panacea  of  political  or  financial  ills 
proclaimed  by  insinuating  rhetorician  or  crafty  demagogue. 
He  will  stand,  he  must  stand  by  reason  of  the  train- 
ing he  has  had,  of  the  wisdom  he  has  absorbed,  as  a  bul- 
wark of  defense  for  the  things  that  are  sane  and  sensible 
and  that  experience  has  proved  and  approved. 

So  far  I  have  discussed  the  general  effect  and  influence 
on  mind  and  character  in  fitting  a  man  for  leadership  in 
the  practical  affairs  of  life,  which  in  my  opinion  a  study 
of  the  humanities  is  pre-eminently  suited  to  produce; 
and  perhaps  I  might  properly  arrest  my  discussion  at 
this  point.  But  there  is  another  phase  of  the  question, 
no  doubt,  of  comparatively  minor  importance,  but  still 
in  my  opinion  of  great  significance,  to  which  I  cannot 
forbear  to  give  attention.  No  man  is  well  educated,  is 
well  fitted  for  leadership  among  his  fellows,  that  has  not 
a  thorough  and  easy  command  of  his  own  language. 
Language  is  the  instrument  of  thought,  whether  we  fully 
agree  with  the  nominalists  or  not,  the  instrument  of 
expression,  of  human  relationship.  There  can  be  no 
clear  thinking,  no  adequate  expression  except  l>y  one  that 


236  Humanistic  Studies 

has  mastery  of  the  instrument  of  thought  and  expression. 
It  is  hardly  possible  therefore,  to  my  mind,  to  exaggerate 
the  importance  of  inculcating  and  cultivating  the  knowl- 
edge and  power  of  our  native  tongue.  Indeed,  the  greatest 
heritage  we  enjoy  is  our  English  language  with  what  it 
contains.  It  is  the  noblest  instrument  of  thought  that 
the  human  mind  has  developed,  with  the  possible  excep- 
tion of  the  ancient  Greek.  And  when  we  recall  the 
complexities — one  might  almost  venture  to  say,  the 
perversities — of  Greek  etymology,  one  may  be  permitted 
to  express  unqualified  preference  for  our  so-called  formless 
speech.  At  any  rate  it  is  acknowledged  to  be,  for  all 
practical  purposes,  far  and  away  superior  to  any  other 
modern  tongue. 

To  this  transcendent  language  of  ours  we  owe  a  pro- 
found respect  and  devotion  akin  to  the  feeling  of  patriot- 
ism or  loyalty.  It  is  our  duty  as  educated  men  to  do  all 
in  our  power  to  maintain  its  integrity  and  to  preserve  its 
purity.  Students  ought  to  be  impressed  with  the  thought 
that  the  language  is  not  theirs  to  do  with  what  they  will; 
it  is  a  great  patrimony  given  to  them  in  trust,  to  be  trans- 
mitted unimpaired,  though  perhaps  enriched,  to  their 
successors.  It  is  theirs  to  use,  to  enjoy,  to  glorj^  in;  but 
not  to  abuse,  to  mutilate,  to  degrade. 

Now,  in  my  opinion,  there  is  no  other  way  by  which 
students  can  come  to  so  thorough  a  knowledge  of  the 
powers  and  possibilities  of  the  English  language,  to  work- 
ing familiarity  with  its  ample  vocabulary,  to  a  compre- 
hension of  slight  distinctions  of  significance  in  its  pro- 
fusion of  synonyms,  to  a  precise  discrimination  among 
its  wealth  of  epithets,  and  to  ease  of  movement  in  mar- 
shaling word  and  phrase  in  orderly  formation,  that  is  to 
be  compared  with  the  study  of  Greek  and  Latin.     Every 


Practical  Affairs  237 

hour  with  text  and  lexicon  and  grammar,  ever}'  exercise 
in  classroom,  becomes  a  practice,  an  experimenting,  a 
successful  engagement  in  what  Mrs.  Malaprop  thought 
she  was  saying  when  she  boasted  of  her  aptitude  for 
"a  nice  derangement  of  epitaphs."  At  a  period  of  his 
development  when  a  student  has  few  thoughts  of  his  own 
to  express,  and  scant  power  to  express  even  what  thoughts 
he  has,  he  has  placed  in  his  hands  a  masterpiece  of  the 
world's  literature  couched  in  alien  idiom  and  surcharged 
with  allusions  to  customs  and  traditions  and  events  remote 
from  his  cognition  or  experience.  For  high  thought  and 
strange  form  and  antiquated  mode  he  must  find  adequate 
interpretation  and  expression  in  his  own  language. 
Almost  imperceptibly  he  finds  his  range  of  expression 
amplified;  his  appreciation  of  delicate  shades  of  thought 
quickened;  his  vocabularj^  expanding;  his  sense  of  the 
value  of  words,  inherited  from  the  Greek  and  the  Latin, 
deepened;  his  ability  to  think  more  clearly  and  to  give 
utterance  to  his  thought  with  propriety  and  precision 
vastly  augmented.  In  all  his  efforts  to  translate  the 
classical  authors  he  has  been  sounding  the  depths  and 
exploring  the  heights  of  his  own  vernacular.  He  has 
been  away  for  the  time,  at  any  rate,  from  the  flippancies 
and  irrelevancies  and  slang  of  the  campus  and  the  athletic 
field,  and  drinking  large  draughts  from  the  well  of  English 
undefiled.  He  may  have  thought  he  was  only  trying 
to  learn  Greek  and  Latin,  but  all  the  time  he  was  per- 
fecting himself  in  the  mastery  of  English,  perfecting  him- 
self in  the  power  of  precise  and  accurate  statement,  of 
adequate  and  appropriate  expression.  If  any  man  hopes 
to  be  a  leader  in  the  practical  life  of  the  time  he  must  have 
the  power  to  think  straight  and  to  give  forceful  utterance 
to  his  thought. 


238  Humanistic  Studies 

For  the  man  that  seeks  to  be  a  leader  in  the  practical 
life  of  the  world  the  study  of  the  humanities,  of  Greek 
and  Latin,  is  to  be  recommended  and  urged,  therefore, 
because  of  the  thorough  understanding  and  mastery  of 
English  that  it  gives;  because  of  the  discipline  of  the 
intellectual  powers  it  affords,  in  determining  the  precise 
meaning  of  an  author's  discourse;  because  of  the  knowl- 
edge gained  of  the  sources  of  our  own  language,  our 
institutions,  and  our  culture;  because  of  the  cultivation 
of  taste  that  comes  thereby  in  all  that  is  high  and  fine 
in  literature  and  art;  because  of  the  wider  vision  it  gives 
to  the  spirit  of  men,  and  because  it  deepens  one's  sense 
of  the  continuity  of  culture,  of  the  solidarity  of  the  race, 
of  our  debt  to  the  past,  and  so  of  our  obligation  to  the 
future.  It  makes  a  man  more  a  man,  the  more  he  knows 
of  what  men  aforetime  have  borne  and  done  and  thought. 
The  most  practical  man,  in  the  final  survey  of  human  life, 
is  the  one  that  puts  the  emphasis  on  man  and  not  on 
practical;  who  is  never  too  absorbed  in  the  cares  and 
triumphs  of  life  to  ask  himself  soberly  now  and  then: 
"What  shall  it  profit  a  man,  if  he  shall  gain  the  whole 
world,  and  lose  his  own  soul?" 


IV.    THE  VALUE  OF  THE  STUDY  OF  GREEK  AND 

LATIN  AS  A  PREPARATION  FOR  THE  STUDY 

OF  SCIENCE 

HARVEY  W.  WILEY 
Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Chemistry,  Washington,  D.C. 

In  this  twentieth  century,  when  the  world  is  full  of 
men  of  affairs,  when  so  much  is  accomplished  in  a  material 
sense,  when  the  intellectual  power  of  certain  men  over 
their  fellow-men  is  so  marked,  when  our  leaders  are  of 


Practical  Affairs  239 

such  consequence,  it  is  a  matter  of  interest  to  study  every 
phase  of  the  training  of  young  people,  for  they  will  be 
responsible  for  the  progress  we  shall  make  in  the  future. 
All  of  us,  teachers  and  students,  workers  in  every  line, 
are  striving  to  make  our  work  tell  in  the  final  result, 
and  not  one  of  us  is  willing  that  the  precious  time  of  the 
youth  of  this  generation  should  be  spent  on  studies  that 
give  no  value  received  at  all  commensurate  with  the  time 
spent  upon  them. 

In  the  general  education,  which  all  of  us  agree  should 
precede  the  study  of  the  science,  art,  or  profession  which 
is  to  be  a  person's  life  work,  such  good  and  broad  founda- 
tions should  be  laid  that  later  in  life  no  trained  man  shall 
feel  that  his  early  training  has  been  essentially  defective. 
That  much,  at  least,  we  older  men  owe  to  those  coming 
after  us,  for  we  are  supposed  to  have  learned,  by  our 
experience  as  working  members  of  this  busy  world,  what 
parts  of  our  education  have  given  us  the  best  training 
for  the  things  we  may  have  accomphshed. 

To  estimate  the  value  of  the  study  of  Greek  and  Latin 
as  a  preparation  for  the  study  of  science,  it  is  well  to  know 
what  is  thought  on  the  subject  by  men  of  eminence  in  the 
various  branches  of  science.  If  the  matter  is  passed  upon 
by  chemists  only,  the  conclusions  to  be  drawn  from  opin- 
ions rendered  would  be  very  different  from  those  to  be 
drawn  from  the  opinions  of  astronomers  exclusively. 

As  a  member  of  the  Committee  of  Nine  of  the  Classical 
Association  of  the  Middle  West  and  South,  I  sent  a  cir- 
cular letter  to  one  hundred  prominent  scientific  men  in 
the  United  States,  teachers  and  others,  for  the  purpose 
of  eliciting  information  respecting  their  attitude  toward 
the  promotion  of  classical  learning  and  their  estimation 
of  its  value.     This  letter  is  in  part  as  follows: 


240  Humanistic  Studies 

I  particularly  desire  to  present  the  matter  of  classical 
studies  to  the  scientific  men  of  this  country  with  a  view  to 
securing  more  extended  study  of  the  classics  as  a  basis  for  scien- 
tific studies.  The  great  tendency  in  the  past  few  years  has 
been  to  eliminate  any  requirement  of  classical  knowledge  from 
courses  in  science.  I  hope  that  a  careful  study  of  these  prob- 
lems will  lead  to  the  return,  at  least  in  part,  to  former  conditions 
of  qualification. 

I  feel  deeply  that  a  man  who  proposes  to  follow  a  scientific 
pursuit  especially  should  be  well  trained  in  both  Latin  and 
Greek.  I  do  not  mean  that  he  should  become  a  specialist,  but 
that  he  should  have  such  a  knowledge  of  these  languages  as 
will  enable  him  to  appreciate  their  beauty  and  utility.  I  desire 
to  have  your  views  on  the  following  points: 

1.  What  value  do  you  place  upon  a  fair  knowledge  of  the 
classical  languages,  especially  Latin  and  Greek,  as  a  basis  for 
scientific  studies  and  activity? 

2.  What  practical  utility  may  such  a  knowledge  of  the 
classical  languages  have  for  a  scientific  man  in  the  active  work 
of  his  profession  ? 

3.  What  particular  branches  of  science  would  be  most 
benefited  by  such  a  knowledge  ? 

4.  What  effect  upon  the  style  and  clearness  of  expression 
will  such  a  knowledge  give  to  a  scientific  writer  or  speaker  ? 

5.  What  practical  help  will  such  a  knowledge  be  to  the 
scientific  man  who  is  required  to  learn  some  modern  language 
in  addition  to  his  own  ? 

6.  What  effect  will  such  a  knowledge  of  the  classics  have 
upon  the  pleasures  arising  from  knowledge  rather  than  its  appli- 
cation which  may  be  enjoyed  by  an  active,  educated  man? 

7.  At  what  age  in  a  person's  training  should  the  knowledge 
of  the  classics  above  referred  to  be  acquired  or  the  acquirement 
commenced  ? 

8.  What  effect  would  such  a  knowledge  have  upon  the  success 
of  a  scientific  man  in  his  professional  activity  ? 

9.  Any  miscellaneous  ar  explanatory  expressions  respecting 
the  value  of  classical  study  to  scientific  life  and  scientific 
research. 


Practical  Affairs  241 

To  this  letter  thirty-five  replies  have  been  received, 
of  which  the  following  is  a  tabulated  summary,  as  regards 
the  first  eight  questions: 

Replies  received 35 

Favorable  to  the  study  of  Latin  and  Greek ....  14 
Unfavorable  to  the  study  of  Latin  and  Greek. . .  17 
Favorable  to  the  study  of  Latin,  but  not  of 
Greek 4 

Point  1. — What  value  do  you  place  upon  a  fair  knowledge 
of  the  classical  languages,  especially  Latin  and  Greek,  as  a  basis 
for  scientific  studies  and  activity? 

No  value 3 

Very  little  value 4 

All  knowledge  is  of  some  value,  therefore  Latin 

and  Greek  must  have  some  value 2 

Latin  and  Greek  have  little  value  in  comparison 

with  the  time  needed  to  acquire  a  knowledge  of 

them 3 

Training  in  language  is  needed,  but  French  and 

German  are  better  than  Latin  and  Greek ....  3 

Latin  is  valuable,  but  not  Greek 4 

Helpful 2 

Great  value 11 

Essential 3 

Point  2. — What  practical  utility  may  such  a  knowledge  of 
the  classical  languages  have  for  a  scientific  man  in  the  active 
work  of  his  profession  ? 

No  specific  answer 4 

No  answer  whatever 4 

Very  little  value 9 

Practical  utility  of  Latin  varies  with  the  nature 

of  the  science  followed 1 

Some  knowledge  of  Latin  and  Greek  is  of  bene- 
fit in  making  English  scientific  terms  intelli- 
gible     4 


242  Humanistic  Studies 

Latin  is  of  great  value  in  obtaining  a  knowledge 
of  the  proper  use  of  English,  so  necessary  to 
any  educated  man 2 

A  student  of  Latin  and  Greek  really  learns  syn- 
tax while  he  is  studying  Latin  and  Greek.  He 
could  do  this  equally  well  by  studying  a  mod- 
ern language  and  better  still  by  analyzing 
English  authors 1 

The  value  of  Latin  and  Greek  is  the  resulting 
acquaintance  with  English  etymology 1 

Severe  attention  to  detail  which  the  thorough 
study  of  Latin  and  Greek  requires  is  of  value, 
but  strictly  scientific  studies  might  give  the 
same  result 1 

The  nomenclature  and  terminology  of  science 
are  based  on  Latin  and  Greek,  hence  knowl- 
edge of  them  is  very  important  to  a  scientific 
man 8 

Point  3. — What  particular  branches  of  science  would  be  most 
benefited  by  such  a  knowledge  ? 

No  specific  answer 7 

All  sciences 3 

Astronomy 1 

Biological  sciences 6 

Botany 3 

Chemistry 3 

Geology 3 

Humanistic  sciences 1 

Mathematics 1 

Medicine 6 

Natural  history 2 

Natural  sciences 1 

Paleontology 1 

Philology 1 

Physics 2 

Zoology 1 

No  use  in  any  science 9 


Practical  Affairs  243 

Those  sciences  in  which  an  elaborate  termi- 
nology is  supposed  to  be  a  mark  of  scientific 
activity 1 

Note. — Several  answers  to  Point  3  named  more  than  one  science. 
Several  left  the  question  blank. 

Point  4. — What  effect  upon  the  style  and  clearness  of  expres- 
sion will  such  a  knowledge  give  to  a  scientific  writer  or  speaker  ? 

No  specific  reply 5 

No  influence 8 

Often  injurious 1 

Tends  to  make  the  style  obscure 2 

Depends  on  personal  peculiarities  of  the  man; 

some  people  are  benefited,  others  injured.  ...  2 

Teaches  grammatical  precision 1 

Training  in  English  is  better  than  training  in 

Latin  or  Greek 4 

Effect  is  beneficial 4 

Knowledge  of  classical  languages  is  very  impor- 
tant to  a  scientific  man  to  teach  him  how  to 

use  English  with  clearness  and  precision ....  8 

Point  5. — What  practical  help  will  such  a  knowledge  give 
to  the  scientific  man  who  is  required  to  learn  some  modern 
language  in  addition  to  his  own  ? 

No  specific  reply 4 

Effect  will  be  to  hinder  the  acquisition  of  a 

modern  language 3 

Any  language  training  is  helpful  as  a  preliminary 

to  other  language  training 2 

A  knowledge  of  Latin  is  of  some  value  in  the 

acquisition  of  French  and  Italian,  but  this  is 

no  motive  for  the  study  of  Latin  and  Greek. 

Such  a  laborious  and  indirect  approach  to 

modern  languages  is  wasteful  in  the  extreme .  .  6 

A  help  in  learning  any  Romance  language 15 

No  help  in  learning  German,  the  most  important 

of  modern  languages  to  a  scientific  man 3 

English  is  the  best  language  to  study  as  the  basis 

for  another  modern  language 2 


244  Humanistic  Studies 

Point  6. — What  effect  will  such  a  knowledge  of  the  classics 
have  upon  the  pleasures  arising  from  knowledge  rather  than  its 
application  which  may  be  enjoyed  by  an  active,  educated  man  ? 

No  specific  replj' 10 

All  knowledge  gives  pleasure;  there  is  no  special 
pleasure  to  be  obtained  from  Latin  and  Greek 

classics 5 

Much  more  pleasure  is  found  in  the  great  works 
in  modern  languages  than  in  the  classics  in 

Greek  and  Latin 5 

A  source  of  great  pleasure 9 

A  source  of  pleasure,  provided  the  study  of  Latin 

and  Greek  be  carried  far  enough 4 

A  knowledge  of  the  classics  in  Latin  and  Greek 
is  essential  to  a  broad  education 2 

Point  7. — At  what  age  in  a  person's  training  should  the 
knowledge  of  the  classics  above  referred  to  be  acquired  or  the 
acquirement  commenced  ? 

No  specific  reply 8 

Should  not  be  acquired  at  all 1 

After  French  and  German  have  been  acquired .  .  2 

If  studied  at  all,  begin  as  young  as  possible 4 

Between  8  and  10 2 

Between  11  and  20 3 

About  the  age  of  12 6    ' 

Li  the  secondary  schools 6 

In  college 2 

Before  professional  studies  are  begun 1 

Point  8. — What  effect  would  such  a  knowledge  have  upon  the 
success  of  a  scientific  man  in  his  professional  activity  ? 

No  specific  reply 9 

No  effect 6 

Little  effect 9 

Culture  value  only 1 

Many  of  the  best  schools  have  given  a  very  large 
part  of  their  time  to  Latin  and  Greek.     Of 


Practical  Affairs  245 

course  the  graduates  of  these  schools  are  better 
trained  than  those  of  poor  schools  with  better 

programs 1 

Advantageous  effect  on  a  man's  reading,  writing, 

and  speaking 2 

Effect  of  drill  in  careful  use  of  language 1 

Other  things  being  equal,  the  botanist  with  a 
good  classical  education  is  more  likely  to  suc- 
ceed, because  he  is  less  dependent  upon  others 
for  certain  essentials  in  his  science,  such  as 
etymologies  of  words,  translation  of  Latin 
descriptions,  and  writing  Latin  descriptions.  .  1 
A  man  becomes  a  better  popularizer  of  science .  .  1 
Classical  knowledge  is  of  much  value  for  the  suc- 
cess of  a  scientific  man 4 

I  select  some  typical  replies  to  Question  9,  giving  them 
in  full,  since  in  man}'  cases  the  attitude  of  the  w'riter  to  the 
whole  subject  under  discussion  is  most  clearly  shown  in 
his  reply  to  that  question: 

J.  M.  Baldwin,  Johns  Hopkins  University 

I  think  the  attempt  to  continue  so-called  "classical"  study 
in  its  traditional  artificial  position  is  quite  useless  and  unwise. 
Let  it  take  a  place  it  can  hold — one  in  common  with  other 
literary  and  linguistic  groups  of  studies.  To  give  it  great  impor- 
tance in  connection  with  science  is  a  conceit,  me  judice,  of  its 
foster-parents. 

R.    P.    BiGELOW,    I\L\SSACHUSETTS    INSTITUTE    OF    TECHNOLOGY 

To  summarize  my  opinions  in  the  matter  of  scientific  edu- 
cation, it  seems  to  me  that  the  essentials  are  of  two  classes: 
First,  a  thorough  training  in  the  use  of  the  tools  required  by  a 
scientific  man,  namely,  the  modern  languages  and  mathematics; 
second,  a  training  in  the  scientific  method,  especially  as  applied 
to  the  branch  of  science  in  which  he  desires  to  specialize.  If 
to  the  curriculum,  the  study  of  the  cla.ssics  can  be  added  without 


246  Humanistic  Studies 

interfering  with  these  essentials,  then  it  seems  to  me  that  in 
some  cases  it  would  be  desirable  as  a  means  of  culture  and 
enjoyment. 

M.  T.  BoGERT,  Columbia  University 

No  reason  for  a  scientific  man  to  go  beyond  Caesar  and 
Xenophon.  Much  more  important  for  a  chemist  to  be  familiar 
with  German  than  Latin,  and  Italian,  French,  or  Danish  than 
Greek.  In  fact,  I  would  place  the  languages  in  about  the 
following  order  for  an  organic  chemist:  German,  English, 
French,  Itahan,  Danish,  Swedish,  Latin,  Greek,  Russian. 

G.  C.  CoMSTocK,  Washburn  Observatory,  University  of 
Wisconsin 

The  value  of  the  classical  languages  and  their  study  appears 
mainly  to  result  from  the  drill  and  mental  exercise  upon  a  host 
of  constantly  recurring  small  problems  and  the  applications 
of  flexible  rules  which  the  diligent  student  cannot  escape,  and 
which  are  especially  adapted  to  the  discipUne  of  immature 
minds.  The  initial  stages  of  such  study  appear  to  me  of  much 
more  value  for  general  training  than  anything  which  can  come 
after  the  first  three  or  four  years  of  such  work. 

J.  U.  Nef,  University  of  Chicago 

I  think  everyone  realizes  as  he  grows  older  that  he  has  his 
limitations.  I,  for  one,  regret  very  keenly  that  I  took  a  great 
deal  of  Latin  and  Greek  and  did  not  spend  far  more  time  on 
advanced  mathematics  and  physics.  I  am,  however,  not  now 
wasting  any  time  in  vain  or  useless  regrets  on  this  account, 
but  simply  doing  the  best  I  can  with  the  knowledge  that  I  have 
acquired. 

Ormond  Stone,    Leander   McCormick   Observatory,   Uni- 
versity OF  Virginia 

The  tendency  to  eUminate  classics  as  required  subjects  from 
courses  in  science  is  pedagogically  correct.  Life  is  too  short  for 
everything.  Modern  languages  (at  least  German  and  French) 
are  essential  to  the  English-speaking  man  of  science. 


Practical  Affairs  247 

W.  F.  Osgood,  Harvard  Uxiversity 

I  value  linguistic  training,  and  I  believe  that  for  the  English- 
speaking  person  German  offers  all  the  advantages  of  La  tin- 
not  German  crowded  into  a  corner  with  Latin  five  hours  a  week 
for  four  school  years,  but  German  taught  by  the  ear  and  by  the 
eye,  with  thorough  schooling  in  grammar  and  reinforced  a  year 
or  two  after  the  start  by  French,  similarly  taught,  both  lan- 
guages strengthening  each  other  through  their  comparative 
study.  From  such  a  study  come  the  advantages,  first,  of  the 
discipline,  of  the  exact  knowledge  and  the  intelhgent  perform- 
ance of  a  task  well  understood;  second,  of  the  broadening 
influence  of  wider  human  contact  through  really  seeing  some- 
thing of  the  thought  of  other  peoples;  and,  third,  of  having  in 
our  possession  a  useful  tool  for  our  science. 

C.  R.  Barnes,  University  of  Chicago 

While  I  should  advise  every  young  man  who  is  going  to 
make  a  special  study  of  some  branch  of  science  to  study  both 
Latin  and  Greek,  I  should  greatly  deplore  requiring  either.  I 
do  not  think  it  possible  to  run  every  scientific  intellect  into  the 
same  preparatory  mold. 

Florian  Cajori,  Colorado  College 

Modern  languages  are  indispensable.  I  have  seen  scien- 
tific men  who  could  read  their  Virgil,  but  to  whom  a  German 
book  was  a  sealed  book.  Their  scientific  work  was  seriously 
hampered. 

C.  W.  Dabney,  University  of  Cincinnati 

I  do  not  know  how  a  man  can  understand  the  terminology  of 
science,  much  less  keep  up  with  its  literature,  unless  he  has  a  full 
knowledge  of  the  classical  languages.  Tlic  scientific  man  must 
be  able  at  a  glance  to  know  the  meaning  of  all  the  terms  used 
in  science  and  I  do  not  see  how  he  can  do  this  unless  he  has  a 
moderate  knowledge  of  Latin  and  Greek.  He  needs  French 
and  German  to  keep  up  with  their  literature,  and  those  lan- 
guages are,  in  part,  based  on  the  classical  languages. 


248  Humanistic  Studies 

E.  S.  Dana,  Yale  University 

I  may  say  in  general  that  my  experience  has  shown  that  a 
knowledge  of  Latin  and  Greek  is  of  great  benefit  to  the  scientific 
man,  particularly  in  natural  history,  since  without  this  he  is 
ignorant  in  regard  to  the  meanings  of  a  considerable  part  of  the 
scientific  vocabulary,  and,  if  his  work  requires  him  to  invent 
new  specific  names,  he  has  not  the  basis  of  knowledge  to  allow 
him  doing  this  intelligently.  Furthermore,  the  drill  in  Latin 
and  Greek  translations  seems  to  me  one  of  the  best  ways  of 
studying  the  English  language  and  thus  training  the  individual 
in  a  clear  style. 

J.  W.  Mallet,  University  of  Virginia 

But  in  a  broader  way  such  a  one  may  well  desire  to  have  his 
share  with  his  fellow-men  in  the  mental  strength  and  enjoy- 
ment which  a  moderate  acquaintance  with  these  tongues  opens 
up  in  history,  in  literature,  in  art,  and  generally  in  a  knowledge 
of  the  mental  life  of  the  chief  races  of  men  who  have  before  us 
inhabitated  the  earth.  In  the  selection  of  subjects  with  which 
to  fill  the  time  and  thoughts  of  the  young  during  the  part  of  Ufe 
which  can  be  given  to  formal  training  there  must  of  necessity 
be  close  instruction  within  practically  attainable  limits,  and  the 
teacher  must  constantly  keep  before  him  the  problem  of  what 
best  may  be  left  out,  but,  in  the  so-called  conflict  between  classi- 
cal and  scientific  studies,  it  may,  I  think,  be  truly  said,  "This 
should  ye  have  done,  and  not  have  left  the  other  undone." 

B.  Osgood  Peirce,  Harvard  University 

I  do  not  regret  the  years  that  I  spent  in  school  and  college 
(not  very  willingly  at  the  time)  upon  Latin  and  Greek. 

Edward  Renouf,  Johns  Hopkins  University 

Every  scientific  man  knows  what  a  dismal  farce  the  result 
of  classical  instruction  in  the  American  preparatory  school  is, 
and  I  do  not  think  it  possible  for  classical  instruction  to  scientific 
students  to  be  prolonged  beyond  the  second  college  year.  The 
result  obtained  at  that  period,  with  the  material  the  teachers 
have  to  handle,  is  still  pitiable,  and,  to  my  mind,  of  little  value, 


Practical  Affairs  249 

especially  if  it  has  lessened  (as  is  usually  the  case)  the  time 
allotted  to  modern  languages.  I  cannot  but  feel  that  it  is 
"up  to"  the  teachers  of  classics.  Scientific  teachers  starting 
with  a  freshman — about  equivalent  to  entrance  into  Ober- 
Secunda  of  the  Gymnasium — turn  out  an  average  undergraduate 
product  which  compares  favorably  with  that  turned  out  in 
German  universities  in  the  same  working  time  from  Real- 
Gymnasium  graduates. 

Why  cannot  the  preparatory  school  teaching  Latin  to  boys 
from  12  to  18  equal,  or  at  least  approach,  the  product  produced 
between  12  and  17  by  the  classical  Gymnasia?  When  they 
do,  the  questions  on  this  sheet  will  not  be  needed — the  man 
with  classical  training  will  be  the  only  man  who  will  be  prac- 
tically received  as  university  or  college  teacher  in  science,  as  it 
is  practically  in  Germany  today. 

C.  0.  Whitman,  University  of  Chicago 
I  have  long  held  that  a  good  knowledge  of  Latin  and  Greek 
is  quite  essential  to  the  modern  man  of  science.  In  my  own 
department,  the  ablest  men  are,  without  an  exception,  men  who 
have  had  a  thorough  classical  training.  Those  who  have  failed 
of  this  show  it  in  inability  to  express  themselves  accurately  and 
concisely.     They  do  not  have  a  fine  appreciation  of  the  primary 

meanings  of  words 

The  scientific  man  must  not  only  know  how  to  use  English, 
but  also  how  to  form  new  words  for  new  purposes.  Besides, 
his  terminology  is  made  up  almost  wholly  of  Latin  and  Greek 
derivatives.  Over  half  of  our  whole  vocabulary  is  founded  on 
Latin.  A  knowledge  of  Latin  aids  immensely  also  in  the  learn- 
ing of  French,  Italian,  Spanish,  etc. 

The  replies  to  the  circular  letter  have  been  difficult  to 
classify,  considering  each  one  as  a  whole.  Examination 
of  a  letter  often  showed  that  different  parts  of  it  should 
be  classified  under  different  heads.  I  have  endeavored, 
however,  to  separate  them  into  two  classes.  First,  those 
which  upon  the  whole  favor  classical  instruction;  and, 
second,    those    which    upon   the    whole   oppose   classical 


250  Humanistic  Studies 

instruction;  but  even  with  this  clear-cut  line  of  demar- 
cation it  has  been  found  impossible  to  make  a  just  dis- 
tribution in  all  cases.  Some  of  those  which  are  found  in 
class  1  will  contain  sections  which  should  be  placed  in 
class  2,  or  vice  versa. 

The  most  prominent  deduction  from  a  studj^  of  the 
replies  is  the  existence  of  two  schools  of  thought  based 
upon  different  premises  or  points  of  view.  In  the  one 
instance  there  is  quite  a  respectable  element  among  scien- 
tific workers  and  teachers  favoring  decidedly,  or,  in  a  lim- 
ited manner,  the  requirement  of  classical  instruction  for 
the  college  degrees.  This  school  believes,  as  will  be  seen 
in  the  detailed  analyses  given,  that  classical  studies  upon 
the  whole  are  advantageous  to  those  engaged  in  scientific 
work  and  also  contribute  to  the  enjoyment  of  scientific 
life.  On  the  other  hand,  we  may  class  those  who  are  of 
very  positive  opinion  that  all  the  time  spent  in  learning 
dead  languages,  especially  Latin  and  Greek,  is  wasted, 
and  that  the  knowledge  which  the  ordinary  student 
obtains  of  these  languages  is  not  a  working  knowledge, 
nor  is  it  of  sufficient  extent  to  warrant  the  belief  that  it 
adds  anything  to  the  pleasure  or  to  the  efficiency  of  those 
engaged  in  scientific  pursuits.  That  such  a  difference  of 
view  would  be  secured  was  clearly  foreseen.  The  surprise 
that  has  come  to  me  in  studying  the  replies  I  have  received 
was  produced  rather  by  the  large  amount  of  testimony  in 
favor  of  the  classics  than  by  that  which  is  opposed  to 
them.  In  general,  I  think  it  may  be  conceded  that,  in  so 
far  as  actual  utility  is  concerned  in  scientific  research 
itself,  a  knowledge  of  the  classical  languages  is  not  of 
any  very  great  importance.  On  the  other  hand,  in  so 
far  as  nomenclature  of  science  is  concerned,  especially 
biological  science,  a  knowledge  of  Greek  and  Latin  is 


Practical  Affairs  251 

almost  indispensable.  Moreover,  it  seems  to  me  there 
is  a  decided  opinion  to  the  effect  that  a  knowledge  of  the 
classics  is  more  or  less  indispensable  to  one  who  claims  to 
be  a  man  of  culture  and  education  in  the  broadest  accep- 
tation of  those  terms. 

In  regard  to  the  period  at  which  classical  studies  should 
begin,  the  preponderating  testimony  is  in  favor  of  an 
early  commencement.  In  other  words,  it  is  the  opinion 
of  most  of  those  who  have  expressed  any  conviction  at 
all  upon  the  subject  that  a  good  knowledge  of  classical 
studies  should  be  acquired  during,  or  even  before,  the 
schooling  which  is  designed  to  fit  the  young  man  to  enter 
the  freshman  class  of  a  good  college  or  university.  There 
is  a  very  decided  preponderance  of  opinion  to  the  effect 
that  the  time  of  the  more  mature  studies,  that  is,  of  the 
last  three  years  of  the  college  course  and  practically  the 
whole  of  the  technical  courses  in  scientific  studies,  should 
be  free  from  any  special  devotion  to  classical  researches. 

I  may  cite  as  a  typical  advocate  of  classical  learning 
the  letter  received  from  Professor  Bessey  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Nebraska.     He  states  in  part : 

In  the  management  of  the  department  of  botany  in  the 
University  of  Nebraska,  I  require  a  knowledge  of  Latin  at 
least,  by  those  who  take  up  the  serious  study  of  botany,  and  I 
urge  such  persons  to  have  some  knowledge  of  Greek  also.  The 
botanist  must  know  something  of  Latin  and  he  should  know 
something  of  Greek  also.  One  young  man  who  came  to  me  a 
number  of  years  ago  with  a  preparation  in  modern  languages 
only,  soon  became  so  convinced  of  the  necessity  of  a  knowledge 
of  Latin  and  Greek  that  after  entering  the  University  he  went 
back  to  the  beginning  of  Latin  and  brought  up  his  knowledge 
of  this  language,  so  that  he  became  a  critical  Latin  scholar. 
He  did  the  same  witli  Greek,  and  always  defended  his  action 
on  the  ground  of  its  being  necessary  for  him  in  his  botanical 
work.     He  is  now  one  of  the  eminent  botanists  of  the  country. 


252  Humanistic  Studies 

As  a  typical  illustration  of  the  attitude  of  those  opposed 
to  classical  learning  I  may  give  the  letter  received  from 
Professor  Carl  Barus  of  Brown  University : 

It  seems  to  me  little  short  of  ludicrous  that  anybody  at  the 
present  age  of  progress  should  make  an  endeavor  to  reintroduce 
classical  philology,  particularly  at  a  time  when  at  such  vener- 
able seats  of  learning  as  Oxford  and  Cambridge  determined 
efforts  have  been  made  to  get  rid  of  this  incubus.  How  is  it 
possible  for  anybody  to  fail  to  realize  that  the  trend  of  science 
is  ever  toward  mathematics,  that  in  the  next  generation  the 
demand  for  a  mathematical  equipment  and  the  need  of  it  will 
be  increased  tenfold  ?  How  is  it  possible  to  ignore  the  fact  that 
this  is  the  direction  in  which  speciahzation  should  be  made, 
beginning  at  an  early  age,  for  the  burden  is  continually  heavier, 
and  that  this  is  precisely  the  direction  in  which  nothing  is  being 
done?  As  for  philological  work,  let  us  have  EngUsh,  French, 
German,  Italian,  etc.,  which  not  only  have  the  same  cultural 
value,  but  open  to  their  possessors  a  world  of  life  and  learning 
and  science.  I  can't  answer  your  questions  for  they  put  me  in 
a  temper. 

These  two  letters  plainly  join  the  battle  between  the 
opposing  forces  and  in  neither  of  them  is  there  any  uncer- 
tain sound. 

Professor  McKee,  of  Lake  Forest  College,  sent  a  most 
interesting  letter.  He  states  that  he  is  distinctly  con- 
vinced from  experiments  he  has  made  that  classical 
studies  are  a  positive  disadvantage  to  scientific  students. 
He  finds  that  students  who  have  come  with  a  knowledge 
of  Latin  rather  than  with  a  knowledge  of  German  do  not 
rank  as  high  as  those  who  have  studied  German.  This 
is  not  a  mere  opinion  but  is  based  upon  actual  data  of 
the  examinations  of  college  students. 

Professor  Branner,  of  Leland  Stanford  Junior  Univer- 
sity, does  not  agree  with  Professor  McKee.     He  says: 


Practical  Affairs  253 

I  believe  that  a  systematic  examination  of  the  records  would 
show  that  the  men  who  have  the  most  enduring  reputations 
in  the  science  I  know  most  about  are  men  who  have  more  or 
less  training  in  the  classics. 

This  may  well  be  true,  since  the  men  who  have  endur- 
ing reputations  are  older  men,  and  the  older  men  were 
educated  at  a  time  when  classical  training  ^vas  required  and 
not  made  optional,  as  it  is  at  the  present  time.  Even,  how- 
ever, should  the  records  of  scientific  men  show  in  the 
future  that  those  Avho  have  acquired  distinction  in  sciences 
are  those  who  have  had  no  classical  training,  it  would  not 
be  a  proof  of  the  lack  of  value  of  classical  culture.  It  is 
well  known  that  the  taste  for  scientific  studies  often 
develops  early  in  life  to  such  an  extent  as  to  exclude 
all  desire  for  the  study  of  any  languages,  except  those 
necessary  to  scientific  reading  and  research.  Hence  it 
would  happen  that  men  with  a  natural  bent  for  scientific 
studies  would  naturally  omit  the  study  of  classical  lan- 
guages when  such  a  study  was  not  required  for  college 
graduation.  Upon  the  whole,  it  seems  to  me  that  the 
class  of  data  submitted  by  Professor  McKee  is  likelj'  to 
be  the  most  reliable.  Unfortunately  for  my  own  personal 
views  in  the  matter,  the  results  of  his  observations  seem 
to  be  distinctly  unfavorable  to  the  classical  scholar.  I 
should  not,  however,  like  to  rest  content  with  this  one 
instance,  but  should  like  to  see  it  supplemented  bj^  others. 
If  we  think  for  a  moment  of  the  vast  number  of  distin- 
guished men  who  have  already  made  their  mark  in  science, 
and  recall  the  fact  that  practically  all  of  them  were  well 
trained  in  the  classics,  we  would  hardly  be  able  to  con- 
demn classical  studies  on  the  ground  that  they  are  posi- 
tively injurious,  as  is  claimed  by  many  of  those  who  have 
responded  to  my  inquiries. 


254  Humanistic  Studies 

My  own  opinion,  partly  formed,  I  must  say,  before 
receiving  the  replies  to  my  circular  letter,  though  some- 
what accentuated  by  reason  of  these  replies,  is  that  it 
would  be  a  very  serious  mistake  to  omit  from  the  higher 
learning  of  the  United  States  instruction  in  classical 
studies.  I  believe,  on  the  other  hand,  that  more  attention 
should  be  paid  to  these  studies,  as  was  the  case  forty 
years  ago,  when  it  was  deemed  not  possible  to  have  a 
liberal  culture  without  a  knowledge  of  Latin.  I  believe 
that  most  of  the  objections  to  classical  studies  made  by 
those  Avho  have  responded  to  my  inquiries  would  be 
removed  if  these  studies  were  begun  at  an  earlier  age. 
I  am  led  to  believe  after  many  years  of  careful  considera- 
tion of  the  subject,  and  as  a  result  of  four  years  of  teach- 
ing the  classics  to  young  college  students,  and  as  the 
result  of  six  years  of  instruction  in  the  classics  received 
from  very  competent  teachers,  that  the  failure  to  reach 
the  full  value  of  classical  instruction  lies  essentially  in 
the  fact  that  this  instruction  is  attempted  at  the  wrong 
time  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  in  the  wrong  manner.  The 
general  practice  in  this  country  is  to  defer  classical  studies 
until  the  time  a  3"0ung  man  begins  to  prepare  for  college. 
While  there  are  many  notable  exceptions  to  this,  excep- 
tions that  are,  by  the  way,  the  strongest  evidence  of  the 
pertinence  of  these  remarks,  I  think  it  may  be  demon- 
strated that  four  years  of  classical  study,  beginning  at 
the  age  of  sixteen,  as  a  rule,  would  produce  no  more  mas- 
tery of  these  studies  than  would  two  or  three  years  of 
study  if  commenced  at  the  age  of  ten  or  twelve.  Youth 
is  the  natural  period  for  learning  a  language.  In  extreme 
youth  the  brain  may  be  regarded  as  almost  unwritten 
upon  and  the  sensations  which  it  registers  most  indelibly 
are  those  which  pertain  to  language.     If  the  brain  may 


Practical  Affairs  255 

be  regarded  as  a  palimpsest,  I  think  we  will  all  agree  that 
the  first  inscriptions  upon  it  should  be  those  of  language. 
Mathematics  and  science  and  philosophy  can  be  written 
over  words  with  good  effect,  but  if  you  try  to  write  a 
language  over  the  other  inscriptions  you  will  have  but 
little  success. 


V.     THE  CLASSICS  AND  MODERN  LIFE 

THE  HONORABLE  JAMES  BROWN  SCOTT 
Solicitor  for  the  Department  of  State,  Washington,  D.C. 

Ever  since  the  Renaissance  there  have  not  been  lacking 
able  exponents  of  the  view  that  the  modern  is  superior 
to  the  ancient  world;  that  the  literature  since  the  great 
revival  of  learning  is  superior  to  the  literature  of  classical 
times,  and  that  the  duty  of  the  modern  world  is  to  develop 
itself  along  modern  lines  without  any  great  regard  to  the 
past.  The  supremacy  of  the  modern  world  was  ably 
proclaimed  by  Perrault  in  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  The 
literature  of  this  period,  however  original  it  may  be,  was 
based  upon  classic  models;  and  the  Battle  of  the  Books, 
to  quote  the  expression  which  Swift  has  made  famous, 
has  raged  in  England  as  well.  That  the  question  is  still 
debated  and  considered  debatable  can  only  mean  that 
the  contest  is  undecided  and  that  the  arguments  advanced 
have  been  neither  convincing  nor  exhausted. 

Without  attempting  to  enter  upon  this  controversy, 
it  is  perhaps  not  improper  for  a  layman  to  observe  that 
even  if  the  supremacy  of  the  modern  world  in  literature, 
in  art,  and  in  philosoph}'  be  admitted,  the  supremacy  is 
the  result  of  the  achievement  of  the  ancient  world  in 
literature,  art,  and  philosophy,  and  that  the  modern  world 
has  reached  its  present  degree  of  civilization  and  culture 
by  a  return  to  the  traditions  of  the  ancient  world,  inter- 


256  Humanistic  Studies 

rupted  by  the  ignorance  and  indifference  of  what  we  are 
pleased  to  term  the  Dark  Ages;  that  the  present  is  a 
development  out  of  the  past,  which  cannot  be  understood 
without  a  knowledge  of  the  past,  and  the  civilization  and 
culture  of  the  present  are  therefore  a  growth  rooted  in 
Greece  and  Rome,  not  a  condition  developed  by  the 
immediate  past  or  created  by  the  conditions  of  the 
present  day. 

The  question,  however,  is  not  one  of  supremacy  of  either 
the  past  or  the  present,  but  of  the  value  to  the  present 
of  the  art,  literature,  and  philosophy,  the  institutions 
and  civilization  of  the  ancient  world.  Indeed,  the  ques- 
tion is  still  narrower,  for  an  expression  of  opinion  is  not 
desired  as  to  the  theoretical  importance  of  this  knowledge, 
but  as  to  the  practical  importance  of  the  humanities  to  one 
actively  engaged  in  the  world's  work.  While  it  may  be 
admitted  that  a  public  servant  may  perform  the  duties 
incumbent  upon  him  without  a  knowledge  of  Greece 
and  Rome,  and  with  no  very  great  familiarity  with  the 
institutions  and  problems  of  the  ancient  world,  it  is  almost 
self-evident  that  the  usefulness  of  a  legislator,  as  distin- 
guished from  an  administrator,  would  be  enhanced  by 
an  adequate  conception  of  the  institutions  of  Greece  and 
Rome  as  well  as  of  the  masterpieces  of  their  political 
philosophy.  Men  change,  governments  rise  and  fall, 
nations  pass  out  of  existence,  but  the  political  relation  of 
man  to  man,  the  problems  of  government,  whereby  indi- 
vidual liberty  may  be  reconciled  with  the  requirements 
of  society,  remain,  and  must  be  considered  by  each 
generation.  The  experience  of  the  past,  however  remote, 
or  of  states,  however  small,  cannot  safely  be  overlooked 
by  one  who  regards  government  and  governmental 
theories   as   a   development.     Constitutions  grow,   they 


Practical  Affairs  257 

are  not  made;  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was 
not  created  in  the  constitutional  convention  in  1787,  but 
was  the  result  of  centuries  of  conflict  and  growth. 

Again,  it  cannot  be  maintained  for  a  moment  that  the 
artistic  conceptions  of  Greece,  and  in  a  lesser  degree  of 
Rome,  are  of  no  advantage  to  the  painter,  the  sculptor, 
the  architect,  and  the  critic.  The  mere  statement 
amounts  to  a  demonstration  and  we  need  only  look  about 
us  to  see  the  persistent,  molding  influence  of  Greece  and 
Rome  in  all  these  departments  of  activity. 

It  may  well  be  granted  that  the  literature  of  the 
present  day  differs  widely  from  the  literature  of  the  ancient 
world;  that  the  conditions  of  the  modern  world  demand 
a  different  treatment,  and  that  various  forms  of  literature 
have  sprung  into  existence  to  meet  the  changed  condi- 
tions. The  standard  of  taste,  however,  has  changed 
but  little;  the  principles  of  composition  are  substantially 
the  same;  and  it  is  not  too  much  to  assert  that  a  master- 
piece of  modern  literature  would  have  commended  itself 
to  the  critics  of  Greece  and  Rome  just  as  the  master- 
pieces of  Greece  and  Rome  not  only  commend  themselves 
to  the  modern  world  but  are  models  of  thought  and 
composition.  It  is  not  suggested  that  the  litterateur  of 
the  present  day  must  proceed  along  classical  lines,  and 
be  minutely  acquainted  with  the  literature  of  antiquity, 
but  it  would  seem  to  l)e  beyond  controversy  that  the 
average  writer  of  the  present  day  would  have  his  thought 
refined,  his  taste  purified,  and  his  style  chastened,  by  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  the  models  and  canons  of  the 
literary  composition  of  Greece,  and  its  imitator  Rome. 
Genius  is  a  law  unto  itself,  and  finds  expression  in  any 
time  and  in  any  language;  but  the  man  of  talent  is 
strengthened  by  a  knowledge  of  the  past. 


258  Humanistic  Studies 

In  the  realm  of  philosophy  the  same  is  true.  We  can- 
not eliminate  Greece  and,  in  a  much  lesser  degree,  Rome, 
if  we  would  construct  a  system  universally  applicable. 
We  cannot  create  a  system  without  reference  to  the  sys- 
tems of  the  past  which  it  has  taken  the  past  itself  centuries 
to  develop.  These  contentions  may  be  readily  admitted 
and  yet  it  may  be  insisted  that  they  apply  to  but  limited 
classes;  that  they  concern  specialists  in  these  various 
lines,  and  do  not  affect  the  overwhelming  mass  of  our 
people  engaged  in  the  practical  questions  of  the  present 
day.  However  strong  this  objection  may  be,  it  is  sus- 
ceptible of  an  answer  which  amounts  to  refutation;  for 
the  study  of  these  subjects,  or  of  any  of  them,  gives 
training  and  balance  to  the  mind,  and  we  must  perforce 
admit  that  the  trained  mind  is  essential  to  the  proper 
conduct  of  affairs  whether  we  be  called  upon  to  discuss 
problems  of  state,  questions  of  literature,  or  canons  of 
art  and  philosophy. 

It  is  not  asserted  that  training  and  balance  may  not 
be  acquired  by  the  study  of  the  natural  and  physical 
sciences,  or  that  an  acquisition  of  modern  languages  will 
not  supply  linguistic  training.  It  is  maintained,  however, 
that  the  study  of  classical  literature,  art,  and  philosophy 
supplies  a  training  based  upon  models  which  have  stood 
the  test  of  time  and  which  may  therefore  be  considered 
universal;  that  the  training  derived  from  their  study  is 
therefore  correct  training,  and  that  we  cannot,  even  if 
we  would,  omit  these  subjects  in  any  curriculum  which 
aims  to  fit  a  man  for  the  problems  with  which  he  will  be 
confronted  in  his  daily  life.  It  is  not  necessary  to  main- 
tain the  superiority  of  these  studies;  it  is  necessary, 
however,  to  assert  their  right  to  equality  of  treatment 
and  that  thej'  be  not  discriminated  against  in  our  colleges 
and  universities. 


Practical  Affairs  259 

May  I,  in  conclusion,  illustrate,  and  enforce  the  neces- 
sity, at  least,  of  a  comprehensive  knowledge  of  Latin  by 
calling  to  your  attention  the  subject  of  international  law, 
in  which  department  I  may  perhaps  speak  as  a  specialist  ? 

The  student  may,  indeed,  obtain  a  knowledge  of 
international  law  as  it  exists  at  the  present  day  from  a 
careful  reading  of  texts  in  English,  supplemented  by 
French  and  German  treatises;  but  if  he  w^ould  trace 
international  law  to  its  beginnings,  and  estimate  rightly 
the  force  of  public  opinion,  which  not  only  controls  our 
national  policies  but  is  shaping  the  international  policies 
of  the  world,  he  must  master  the  sources  of  international 
law;  he  must  familiarize  himself  with  the  leading  writers 
of  international  law  who  have  in  the  past  three  centuries 
laid  broad  and  deep  the  foundations  of  a  stately  structure, 
and  he  cannot  do  this  without  a  thorough  and  practical 
knowledge  of  Latin.  For  not  only  did  Grotius  himself 
appeal  to  the  public  opinion  in  that  language  with  which 
public  opinion  was  familiar,  I  mean  Latin,  but  his  prede- 
cessors and  those  who  carried  on  the  Grotian  tradition 
and  perfected  the  science  of  international  law  composed 
their  treatises  in  Latin.  The  history  of  international 
law  is  a  sealed  book  to  one  who  is  not  a  Latinist,  and  the 
ignorance  of  Latin  argues  at  best  but  an  acquaintance 
with  secondary  sources. 


SYMPOSIUM  VI 

THE   VALUE    OF   HUMANISTIC   STUDIES:     THE   CLASSICS   AND 
THE    NEW    EDUCATION 

I.    THE  CLASSICS  IN  EUROPEAN  EDUCATION 

EDWARD  KENNARD  RAND 

Harvard  University 

The  ancient  classics,  the  literature  of  Greece  and  Rome, 
were  regarded  as  a  vital  constituent  of  education  from  the 
moment  when  they  were  produced.  Studied  with  devo- 
tion as  the  immortal  memorials  of  a  great  past,  they  have 
led,  when  rightly  followed,  to  new  and  high  achievement 
in  the  present.  With  this  consideration  as  a  clue,  let  us 
travel  on  as  briskly  as  the  moments  at  our  disposal  require 
down  the  centuries  of  European  history. 

I  know  not  what  Homer  studied  when  he  went  to 
school — for  may  we  not,  encouraged  by  recent  discussions, 
not  only  think  of  Homer  in  personal  terms,  but  even 
boldly  picture  him  as  a  schoolboy  once  upon  a  time? — 
I  know  not  what  Homer  studied;  but  everybody  knows 
that  Homer  was  part  and  parcel  of  the  education  of  a 
great  age  that  came  after  him,  the  age  of  Periclean 
Greece.  In  that  age,  moreover,  we  see  that  twofold 
impulse  of  the  human  spirit  which  the  study  of  classical 
literature  normally  inspires — reverence  for  the  past,  and 
the  passionate  desire  to  act  worthily  in  the  present. 
Aeschylus,  who  described  his  dramas  as  mere  slices  from 
the  Homeric  feast,  prepared  for  his  own  times,  as  Herder 
remarked,  another  kind  of  banquet.  The  Alexandrian 
Age,  which  created  canonical  lists  of  the  best  authors, 
among  whom  Aeschylus  now  took  his  place,  was  also  an 

260 


The  New  Education  261 

age  of  startling  innovations  in  philosophy  and  politics; 
in  literature,  much  pondering  of  Homer  led,  not  to  remote 
and  archaistic  fancies,  but  to  the  translation  of  heroic 
tj'pes  into  contemporary  terms.  Then  came  the  Romans, 
not  an  alien  race  with  a  hybrid  culture,  save  in  the  sense 
that  all  culture  is  hj'brid,  but  creators  of  another  great 
period  in  the  development  of  antiquity,  a  period  less 
novel  in  the  invention  of  literary  forms,  but  fertile  and 
to  the  highest  degree  original  in  the  adaptation  of  the  old. 
Rome's  innovations  in  human  history  are  conspicuous 
enough;  they  followed  naturally  from  a  loyal  consecra- 
tion to  the  past.  Beginning  with  a  devotion  to  their  own 
heroic  past,  they  connected  this  past  deliberately  with 
the  glories  of  Greek  literature  and  history,  when  once 
that  potent  influence  had  made  its  presence  felt.  Think 
for  a  moment  of  these  typical  Romans,  and  the  double 
outlook  on  the  past  and  on  the  present,  conspicuous  in 
their  lives  and  works:  Ennius,  who  refashioned  Latin 
verse  in  the  new  Grecian  measure,  that  in  this  verse  he 
might  immortalize  the  history  of  his  country;  Cicero, 
reverent  student  of  the  ancient  poetry  of  Ennius  and 
leader  of  his  times  ia  the  year  63;  Horace,  who  bids  the 
learner 

Thumb  Greek  classics  night  and  day 

and,  thanks  to  such  a  training,  arraigns  the  age  in  a 
splendid  series  of  Alcaean  odes.  Poets  who  know  their 
own  day  only  are  the  "singers  of  Euphorion,"  in  Cicero's 
contemptuous  phrase.  Young  Virgil,  perhaps  included 
in  that  phrase,  has  so  little  fame  from  his  early  poems, 
which  bear  the  mark  of  Euphorion,  that  until  recently 
nobody  believed  he  could  have  written  them.  Virgil's 
great  message  to  his  generation,  and  to  ours,  came  in  a 


262  Humanistic  Studies 

poem  which  reveals  an  intense  study  of  his  country's 
past  and  an  intense  study  of  Homer  and  Greek  tragedy. 

I  have  tarried  a  moment  with  the  ancients,  instead  of 
beginning  much  later  in  the  history  of  Europe,  expressly 
to  suggest  that  the  best  things  in  ancient  literature  were 
not  written  solely  from  the  artistic  but  often  from  the 
social  motive  as  well.  Letters,  and,  originally,  men  of 
letters,  were  not  sundered  from  public  life,  but  actively 
contributed  to  it.  If  the  classics  have  molded  later 
history,  it  is  not  merely  because  of  their  great  qualities 
as  literature,  but  because  they  are  involved  in  the  history 
of  their  own  times  and  because  they  enshrine  the  ideals 
of  a  liberal  and  four-square  education,  such  as  their 
authors  possessed.  This  is  a  matter  that  will  become 
obvious,  in  a  moment,  when  we  consider  the  educational 
program  of  Italian  humanism. 

But  first  we  must  quickly  traverse  the  intervening 
ages — Middle  Ages,  but  not  wholly  dark — which  a  new 
system  of  education  controlled.  It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose 
that  the  Christian  church  was  hostile  to  pagan  culture; 
on  the  contrary,  after  a  brief  season  of  combat  and  re- 
adjustment, the  old  learning  was  appropriated  for  a  new 
purpose.  But  the  purpose  was  new.  Whereas  to  Cicero 
and  Quintilian  the  goal  of  education  was  eloquentia,  the 
art  of  expression  and  its  application  to  the  business  of 
state,  the  Christian  monastery  removed  from  the  world 
and  prescribed  hours  of  silence.  Ill  would  the  sophist 
Polemo  have  fared  there,  who  was  buried  before  the 
breath  left  his  body,  that  he  might  not  be  seen  above 
ground  with  mouth  shut.  The  Christian  church  main- 
tained both  systems  of  education  for  some  time,  but 
monasticism  gained  the  day  and  was  the  main  strength 
of  education  till  later,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  the  university 


The  New  Education  263 

came.  Now  the  classics  did  not  perish  under  the  new 
regime;  in  fact,  we  can  thank  the  monastery  for  preserv- 
ing them  for  us.  They  constituted  the  first  step  in 
education,  the  "Human  Readings,"  as  Cassiodorus  called 
them,  to  be  succeeded  by  "Divine  Readings"  later. 
More  than  that,  in  the  revival  of  learning  under  Charle- 
magne, and  later  at  the  school  of  Chartres,  the  ancient 
idea  came  again  to  the  front.  John  of  Sahsbury  in  the 
twelfth  century  had  a  great  deal  to  say  about  eloquentia, 
while  Hildebert  of  Tours  wrote  epigrams  delightfully 
antique,  which  could  deceive  the  very  elect;  for  they 
are  included  in  certain  modern  editions  of  the  Anihologia 
Latina.  Church,  state,  and  learning  were  more  intimately 
associated  than  before.  The  university,  too,  though  its 
tendencies  were  philosophical  rather  than  humanistic, 
created  a  new  interest  in  Greek  by  finding  the  real  Aris- 
totle again,  and  thus  led  the  way  for  the  humanists' 
quest  of  all  Greek  literature.  Men  of  the  Middle  Ages 
did  not  differ  radically  from  those  of  succeeding  centuries 
in  their  attitude  toward  the  classics.  Humanism  and 
philosophy  had  their  battles  in  that  period  as  in  every 
period,  but  the  importance  of  classical  culture  for  edu- 
cation was  in  general  unquestioned.  The  great  and 
striking  difference  lay  in  the  amount  of  classical  culture 
available.  The  division  of  the  empire  into  an  East  and 
a  West  effected  curious  results  in  civilization.  Byzan- 
tium, after  dark  ages  of  its  own,  settled  down  to  an 
eminently  respectable  scholarship  which  created  little 
in  literature  or  thought.  It  treasured  the  Greek  authors 
but  forgot  the  Roman.  When  the  monk  Maximus 
Planudes  at  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century  translated 
various  Latin  authors  into  (ireek,  he  selected  those  most 
in  vogue  in  the  West  at  that  time,  such  as  Ovid,  Boethius, 


264  Humanistic  Studies 

Augustine,  Donatus,  Dionysius,  Cato;  there  was  evi- 
dently no  separate  tradition  of  Latin  literature  at  Byzan- 
tium. In  the  West,  similarly,  the  stream  of  Greek  was 
trickling  feebly;  the  knowledge  of  the  language  had  not 
completely  disappeared,  and  technical  writers  like  Aris- 
totle and  the  author  of  the  Celestial  Hierarchy  were 
directly  introduced,  but  the  writers  typical  to  us  of  the 
Hellenic  genius  were  none  of  them  known.  Now  a  world 
without  Homer,  the  Attic  drama,  Thucydides,  Herodotus, 
Demosthenes,  Theocritus,  a  world  without  the  real  Plato, 
is  bound  to  be  a  very  different  world  from  our  own.  Not 
th^t  this  loss  which  befell  the  Occident  was  ultimately 
a  calamity.  The  very  isolation  of  the  Roman  spirit 
permitted  its  most  triumphant  ;expression  in  Dante,  for 
whose  poetry  we  should  willingly  forego  whatever  a  com- 
bined East  and  West  might  have  achieved. 

To  see  how  the  mediaeval  imagination  was  still 
fixed  faithfully  upon  antiquity,  though  less  able  than 
before  to  understand  its  meaning,  we  turn  to  Dante, 
who  mirrors  truly  the  vital  sentiments  of  his  times. 
Many  a  reader  has  felt  the  beauty  of  that  scene  in  the 
Purgatorio,  where  Dante  and  Beatrice  come  upon  a 
troop  who  sing: 

Benedictus  qui  venis, 
E  fior  gittando  di  sopra  e  dintorno, 
Manibus  o  date  lilia  plenis. 

Christian  liturgy  and  pagan  poetry,  which  to  some  could 
sound  only  a  discord,  blend  harmoniously  here.  But 
for  a  more  striking  instance  still  I  turn  to  Dante's  seventh 
letter,  addressed  to  Henry  VII  of  Germany  in  1311.  In 
this  letter  Dante  speaks  of  "the  new  hope  of  a  better 
age"  which  "flashed  upon  Latium"  when  that  monarch 
came  down  into  Italy.     "Then  many  a  one,  anticipating 


The  New  Education  265 

in  his  joy  the  wishes  of  his  heart,  sang  with  Maro  of  the 
kingdom  of  Saturn  and  of  the  returning  Virgin."  But 
since  this  sun  of  their  hopes  seems  to  tarry,  as  though 
bidden  to  stand  by  a  second  Joshua,  Italy  is  tempted  to 
cry:  ''Art  thou  he  that  should  come,  or  do  we  look  for 
another  ? "  Dante  himself  has  firm  faith  in  the  "minister 
of  God"  and  "the  promoter  of  Roman  glory,"  but  wonders 
still  why  he  can  delay,  apparently  believing  that  the 
boundaries  of  Rome  end  at  Liguria.  But  the  real  Rome 
"scarce  deigneth  to  be  bounded  by  the  barren  wave  of 
ocean.     For  it  is  written  for  us 

Nascetur  pulchra  Troianus  origine  Caesar 
Imperium  Oceano,  famam  qui  terminet  astris." 

Had  not  the  edict  "that  all  the  world  should  be  taxed" 
issued  from  the  "council  chamber  of  the  most  righteous 
princedom,"  the  Son  of  God  would  not  have  "chosen 
that  time  to  be  born  of  a  Virgin."  So  let  the  emperor 
not  delay,  but  "let  that  word  of  Curio  to  Caesar  ring 
forth  once  more — 

Dum  trepidant  nuUo  firmatae  robore  partes, 
Tolle  moras;  semper  nocuit  differre  paratis; 
Par  labor  atque  metus  pretio  maiore  petuntur. 

Let  that  voice  of  the  chider  ring  forth  from  the  clouds 
once  more  against  Aeneas — 

Si  te  nulla  mo  vet  tantarum  gloria  rerum 

Ascanium  surgentem  et  spes  heredis  luli 
Respice 

For  John,  thy  royal  first-born  ....  is  for  us  a 
second  Ascanius  who,  following  in  the  footprints  of  his 
great  sire,  shall  rage  like  a  lion  all  around  against  every 
Turnus,  and  shall  be  gentle  as  a  lamb  toward  the  Latins." 


266  Humanistic  Studies 

Dante  thon  warns  the  emperor  by  the  example  of  David, 
whom  Samuel  rebuked  for  sparing  "the  sinners  of  Ama- 
lek."  He  Avarns  him  by  the  example  of  Hercules,  for 
there  are  many  heads  of  the  Italian  hydra,  and  if  Cremona 
is  lopped  off  Brescia  and  Pavia  will  remain.  He  must 
strike  at  the  viper  itself,  even  Florence,  who  is  that  ''foul 
and  impious  Myrrha  that  burns  for  the  embraces  of  her 
father  Cinyras,"  ''that  passionate  Amata  who  rejected 
the  wedlock  decreed  by  fate,"  thus  resisting  "the  ordi- 
nance of  God"  and  worshiping  "the  idol  of  her  proper 
will."  So  come,  "thou  loftj^  scion  of  Jesse.  Take  to 
thee  confidence  from  the  eyes  of  the  Lord  God  of  Sabaoth 
....  and  lay  this  Golias  low  with  the  sling  of  thy  wis- 
dom and  the  stone  of  thy  strength." 

Surely  for  this  act  of  public  service — the  greatest, 
Dante  doubtless  thought,  that  he  could  render  his  country 
— the  authority  of  Virgil  and  Lucan  and  Ovid  seems  well- 
nigh  as  efficient  as  that  of  Scripture  itself.  May  we  not 
say  that  for  Dante,  as  truly  as  for  any  later  humanist, 
the  study  of  the  ancients  had  an  immediate  bearing  upon 
the  problems  of  the  day  ? 

When  Dante  had  finished  his  work  it  was  time  for  a 
new  epoch.  Scholasticism  had  run  its  course.  After 
so  minute  and  comprehensive  a  vision  of  the  kingdom  of 
this  world  and  the  next  as  St.  Thomas  records,  some  sort 
of  protest  and  readjustment  is  inevitable  if  the  human 
sense  of  wonder  is  to  persist;  in  a  universe  where  nothing 
escapes  the  observer,  the  observer,  as  Lucretius  knew, 
will  find  at  last 

eadem  sunt  omnia  semper. 

So  scholasticism  declined  and  a  new  age  came,  in  which 
education  returned  to  the  methods  of  antiquity.     We 


The  New  Education  267 

need  not  pause  to  examine  the  causes  of  this  event;  but 
its  most  significant  concomitant  is  the  return  of  Greek 
literature  to  the  Western  World.  There  is  a  humorous 
aspect  to  the  triumphs  of  the  humanists,  who  "dis- 
covered" Latin  authors  long  treasured  on  monastic 
shelves.  Quintilian,  welcomed  back  with  such  a  furor, 
had  been  the  patron  saint  of  the  school  of  Chartres.  The 
humanists  could  rediscover  because  in  the  thirteenth 
century  the  classical  interests  of  the  twelfth  had  yielded 
to  philosophy,  and  in  the  fourteenth,  monastic  discipline 
and  the  monastic  library  had  lapsed  into  decay.  But 
I  would  not  belittle  the  importance  of  what  to  the  con- 
temporaries of  Poggio  were  certainly  discoveries.  For 
the  thirst  for  discoveries  led  also  to  the  more  careful 
study  of  the  authors  existing.  Petrarch  initiated  the 
movement ;  though  curiously  mediaeval  in  some  respects, 
he  deserves  his  title  of  the  first  modern  man,  and  this 
because  of  his  passion  for  antiquity.  His  great  service 
is  not  so  much  the  discovery  of  Cicero's  letters  as  the  ex- 
altation of  Ciceronian  ideas,  which  were  from  that  time  on 
the  guiding  principle  of  humanistic  education.  Petrarch's 
craving  for  Homer,  too,  ill  satisfied  by  the  wretched  trans- 
lation which  his  teacher  made,  gave  impetus  to  the  general 
demand  for  the  Greek  authors.  Work  after  work  was 
won  back;  practically  all  the  authors  that  we  have  today 
were  recovered  before  the  fall  of  Constantinople  in  1453, 
which  date  surely  does  not  mark  the  beginning  of  the 
Renaissance.  What  wonder  if  the  age,  intoxicated  by 
the  new  draught,  indulged  itself  in  various  excesses? 
What  wonder,  too,  if  at  first  the  habits  of  centuries  pre- 
vented men  from  rightlj'  valuing  their  new  treasures,  so 
that  throughout  the  Renaissance  the  doctrine  prevailed 
that  the  greater  literature  was  the  Latin?     The  Greek 


208  Humanistic  Studies 

authors  had  at,  any  rate  returned,  and  civilization  could 
not  remain  as  before. 

For  a  glimpse  into  the  new  school  of  the  humanists 
after  Greek  had  its  sure  place  there,  we  can  do  no  better 
than  open  a  little  book  by  Battista  Guarino,  De  ordine 
docendi  et  studendi,  published  in  1459.  Battista  Guarino 
is  less  celebrated  than  his  father,  and  distinctly  less 
celebrated  than  Vittorino  da  Feltre,  the  greatest  teacher 
of  the  Renaissance.  The  curriculum  at  this  school  is 
narrower  than  that  of  Vergerio  or  Aeneas  Sylvius;  for 
this  reason  it  is  a  safer  guide  to  the  average  practice  of 
the  day.  Guarino  restricts  the  disciplines  to  ancient 
literature  and  history,  Greek  and  Latin;  logic  and  ethics, 
for  instance,  are  introduced,  not  as  independent  studies, 
but  because  they  are  necessary  for  the  explanation  of 
Cicero.  Tte  program  sounds  rather  barren,  but  we 
must  study  it  more  deeply  to  see  what  it  means.  Liter- 
ature involves  grammar,  of  course,  and  prosody,  and 
likewise  composition  in  both  prose  and  verse.  The 
works  of  Virgil  should  be  learned  by  heart,  for  "in  this 
way  the  flow  of  the  hexameter,  not  less  than  the  quantity 
of  individual  syllables,  is  impressed  on  the  ear,  and 
insensibly  molds  the  taste."  Nor  should  the  contents 
of  poetry  be  neglected.  Its  fictions  have  moral  as  well 
as  artistic  value.  They  exhibit  the  realities  of  our  own 
life  under  the  form  of  imaginary  persons  and  situations; 
Cicero's  authority  is  quoted  for  this  sentiment,  and  St. 
Jerome  is  cited  to  good  purpose.  The  lessons  of  history, 
too,  are  of  great  value.  By  it,  Guarino  states,  the  student 
will  learn  "to  understand  the  manners,  laws,  and  insti- 
tutions of  different  types  of  nations,  and  will  examine  the 
varying  fortunes  of  individuals  and  states,  the  sources  of 
their  success  and  failure,  their  strength  and  their  weak- 


The  New  Education  269 

ness.  Xot  only  is  such  knowledge  of  interest  in  daily 
intercourse,  but  it  is  of  practical  value  in  the  ordering  of 
affairs."  Now  though  logic  and  ethics  may  have  been  an 
aside,  they  involved  the  direct  study  of  Aristotle  and 
Plato.  We  find  other  asides,  too — astronomy,  and 
geography,  and  Roman  Law,  and  the  writers  on  those 
subjects.  Moreover,  independent  reading  is  a  vital  part 
of  the  plan,  and  among  authors  suggested  as  appropriate 
for  such  reading  are  St.  Augustine,  Aulus  Gellius,  Macro- 
bius,  the  elder  PHny,  "whose  Natural  History  is  indeed 
as  wide  as  nature  herself."  The  pupil  is  bidden  to  prac- 
tice his  memory  by  going  over  at  the  end  of  each  day 
what  he  has  just  learned;  he  is  told  to  do  much  reading 
aloud,  since  this  will  give  him  the  confidence  which  the 
pubHc  speaker  needs.  Throughout  these  instructions 
there  is  constant  reference  to  the  moral  goal  of  education. 
"In  purity  of  grace  and  style,"  Guarino  affirms,  "in 
worthy  deeds  worthily  presented,  in  noble  thoughts  nobly 
said,  in  all  these,  and  not  in  one  alone,  the  learner  finds 
the  nourishment  of  his  mind  and  spirit."  But  literature 
is  not  merely  moral;  it  trains  the  dramatic  imagination. 
"In  this  way,"  he  continues,  "we  are  not  disturbed  l)y 
the  impieties,  cruelties,  horrors,  which  we  find  there;  we 
judge  these  things  simply  by  their  congruity  to  the  char- 
acters and  situations  described.  We  criticize  the  artist, 
not  the  moralist."  The  ultimate  secret  of  this  method 
is  its  foundation  in  personality,  and  humanity.  "  Finally," 
he  declares,  "through  books  and  books  alone,  will  your 
converse  be  with  the  best  and  greatest,  nay  even  with  the 

mighty   dead   themselves To   man   only    is 

given  the  desire  to  learn.  Hence  what  the  Greeks  called 
TraiBeia  we  call  ntudia  humanitatis.  For  learning  and 
virtue   are   peculiar  to   man;    therefore   our   forefathers 


270  Humanistic  Studies 

called  them  'humanitas,'  the  pursuits,  the  activities 
proper  to  mankind.  And  no  branch  of  knowledge  em- 
braces so  wide  a  range  of  subjects  as  that  learning  which 
I  have  now  attempted  to  describe." 

Nothing  but  Greek  and  Latin.  Under  Guarino's 
cultivation,  these  ancient  roots  branch  out  as  widely  as 
the  flower  in  the  crannied  wall.  These  studies  of  antiq- 
uity educate  the  whole  man — moral,  aesthetic,  intellec- 
tual; they  train  him  to  independent  thinking,  for  the 
authors  are  but  the  starting-point ;  they  inculcate  rever- 
ence for  the  past;  they  teach  its  application  to  the  present. 
Now  two  historical  facts  are  plain  with  reference  to  this 
program.  First,  it  is  simply  the  ancient  method  of 
Cicero  and  Quintilian  all  over  again.  Both  authors  are 
constantly  cited  for  principles  as  well  as  facts;  virtutis 
laus  omnis  in  adione  consistit,  said  Cicero,  and  Vittorino 
echoes  the  words.  Second,  it  is  the  basis  of  every  truly 
humanistic  program  established  from  that  day  to  this. 
Its  principles  appear  in  some  dozen  treatises  of  the  day, 
and  from  Italy  spread  to  the  North.  What  I  have  quoted 
does  not  touch  all  the  elements  in  humanistic  education. 
Science  and  mathematics  received  more  consideration 
than  one  might  suppose.  Religious  training  was  not 
neglected,  as  it  is  with  us;  polite  demeanor,  dress,  physi- 
cal exercise,  all  were  matters  for  attention.  And  let  me 
emphasize  again  the  point  I  would  specially  make:  the 
twofold  character  of  their  education,  its  reverence  for 
the  past  and  its  interest  in  the  present,  derives  clearly 
from  the  ancient  prototype. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  quote  in  extenso  the  leading 
humanists  of  the  North  for  proof  that  the  new  educa- 
tional ideals  are  eagerly  appropriated  and  applied. 
Rudolphus  Agricola  in  Germany,  Vives  in  Holland,  but 


The  New  Education  271 

originally  from  Spain,  Dorat  and  the  learned  Bude  in 
France,  diverge  in  no  essential  particular  from  Vittorino. 
Let  Erasmus,  the  most  cosmopolitan  man  of  his  day, 
speak  for  them  all.  ''The  first  object  of  education," 
he  declares,  "is  to  teach  the  young  mind  to  foster  the 
seeds  of  piety,  the  next  to  love  and  learn  the  liberal  arts, 
the  third  to  prepare  itself  for  the  duties  of  hfe,  the  fourth, 
from  its  earliest  years  to  cultivate  civil  manners."  Eras- 
mus truly  represents  England,  as  well  as  his  own  land, 
but  a  native  voice  was  also  heard  from  our  mother- 
country  at  that  time.  I  mean  not  Roger  Ascham,  who 
comes  later  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  whose  system  is  a 
bit  lady-like  in  its  painful  propriety,  but  Thomas  Elyot, 
who,  in  his  Book  of  the  Governour  (1531),  interpreted  Eras- 
mus and  Bude  to  England.  The  idea  that  the  study  of 
the  classics  was  merely  the  study  of  two  foreign  and 
ancient  tongues  would  find  no  favor  with  him.  "Only 
to  possess  language,"  he  declared,  "is  to  be  a  popinjay." 
Homer  holds  for  him  far  more  than  that.  "If  by  read- 
ing the  sage  counsel  of  Nestor,  the  subtle  persuasions 
of  Ulysses,  the  compendious  gravity  of  Menelaus,  the 
imperial  majesty  of  Agamemnon,  the  prowess  of  Achilles, 
the  valiant  courage  of  Hector,  we  may  apprehend  any- 
thing whereby  our  wits  may  be  amended  and  our  per- 
sonages more  apt  to  serve  our  public  weal  and  our  prince, 
what  forceth  it  us  though  Homer  writes  leasings?"  As 
with  Guarino,  the  poetic  lie  has  its  moral  function.  Elyot 
concludes:  "I  think  verily  if  children  were  brought  up 
as  I  have  written,  and  continually  were  retained  in  the 
right  study  of  every  philosophy  until  they  passed  the 
age  of  twenty-one  years  and  then  set  to  the  laws  of  this 
realm  ....  undoubtedly  they  should  become  men  of 
so   excellent  wisdom   that   throughout   the   world,   men 


272  Humanistic  Studies 

should  bo  found  in  no  common  weal  more  noble  coun- 
sellors." 

These  words  have  the  ring  of  a  familiar  passage  in 
Bacon's  Advancement  of  Learning,  concerning  the  learned 
governor.  "Nay,  let  a  man  look  into  the  government 
of  the  Bishops  of  Rome,"  he  remarks,  "as  by  name,  into 
the  government  of  Pius  Quintus,  and  Sextus  Quintus,  in 
our  times,  who  were  both  at  their  entrance  esteemed  but 
as  Pedantical  Friars,  and  he  shall  find  that  such  Popes 
do  greater  things,  and  proceed  upon  truer  principles  of 
Estate,  than  those  which  have  ascended  to  the  Papacy 
from  an  education  and  breeding  in  affairs  of  Estate  and 
Courts  of  Princes."  Or,  to  translate  this  into  modern 
terms,  let  future  lawyers  take  Classics  in  college,  and  not 
confine  themselves  to  Economies. 

Need  I  say  that  all  Bacon's  thinking  was  seasoned 
through  and  through  with  the  classics?  He  was  no 
pedantic  advocate,  surely  no  advocate  of  the  Ciceroni- 
anist  whom  he  berates  as  soundly  as  he  does  the  scholastic. 
"Then  did  Car  of  Cambridge,  and  Ascham,  with  their 
Lectures  and  Writings,  almost  deify  Cicero  and  Demos- 
thenes, and  allure  young  men  that  were  studious,  into 
that  delicate  and  polished  kind  of  Learning.  Then  did 
Erasmus  take  the  occasion  to  make  the  scoffing  Echo: 
Decern  annos  consumpsi  in  legendo  Cicerone;  and  the 
Echo  answered  in  Greek,  "Ove,  Asine." 

Bacon  brings  us  naturally  to  Milton,  a  Puritan  and  a 
rebel,  who  also,  thanks  to  the  ancients,  could  temper  his 
virtue  with  Epicureanism,  and  show  in  his  poetry  that 
liturgic  reverence  for  the  past  which  is  ingrained  in  classic 
literature.  Milton  writes  a  brief  treatise  "  Of  Education  " 
to  his  friend  Samuel  Hartlib,  and  in  it  he  says:  "I  call, 
therefore,  a  complete  and  generous  education,  that  which 


The  New  Education  273 

fits  a  man  to  perform  justly,  skilfully,  and  magnanimously 
all  the  offices,  both  private  and  public,  of  peace  and  war. 
And  how  all  this  may  be  done  between  twelve  and  one- 
and-twenty,  less  time  than  is  now  bestowed  in  pure 
trifling  at  grammar  and  sophistry,  is  to  be  thus  ordered." 
Then,  outlining  his  main  topics,  as  studies,  exercise,  and 
diet,  he  treats  of  the  first:  "First,  they  should  begin  with 
the  chief  and  necessary  rules  of  some  good  grammar 
....  and  ....  their  speech  is  to  be  fashioned  to 
a  distinct  and  clear  pronunciation,  as  near  as  may  be  to 
the  Italian,  especially  in  the  vowels."  He  is  speaking, 
of  course,  of  Latin  grammar.  He  proceeds  with  a  lengthy 
list  of  readings  in  Greek  and  Latin  literature,  which  soon 
runs  into  mathematics  and  many  natural  sciences, 
politics,  philosophy,  and  rehgion.  "And  either  now  or 
before  this,"  he  interposes,  "they  may  have  easily  learned 
at  any  odd  hour  the  Itahan  tongue."  As  with  Guarino, 
education  was  not  all  done  by  courses. 

Thus  far  our  examination  of  the  history  of  classical 
education  in  Europe  has  been  pleasant  enough,  at  least 
for  those  who  are  favorably  disposed  toward  the  classics. 
We  have  seen  the  ancient  ideal  reintroduced  in  the  Italian 
Renaissance,  disseminated  in  the  northern  countries, 
and  estabhshed  once  for  all,  we  should  imagine,  by 
mighty  thinkers  like  Bacon  and  Milton.  But  no  human 
institution  is  permanent  and,  even  in  the  times  with 
which  we  have  been  dealing,  forces  were  at  work  which 
tended  to  discredit  an  educational  program  based  on  the 
classics. 

One  such  force  was  the  decay  of  the  method  itsc^lf. 
All  movements  tend  eventually  to  a  period  of  formalism 
and  petrifaction.  Petrifaction  seized  the  classical  i)ro- 
gram  when  the  limits  of  good  Latin  style  were  restricted 


274  Humanistic  Studies 

to  Cicero,  and  taste  in  general  became  puristic.  Politian 
had  read  sympatlieticaliy  in  the  authors  of  silver  Latinity 
and  appropriated  their  phrases  at  will,  because,  he  said, 
he  was  expressing  not  them,  or  Cicero,  or  anybody  but 
himself.  Bombo  shrank  from  calUng  deity  anything  but 
dii  immortales,  and  warned  a  young  friend  against  too 
much  reading  of  the  New  Testament,  lest  it  spoil  his 
Latin  style.  That  was  the  age,  too,  when  handbooks  of 
imaginative  etiquette  were  compiled  to  save  the  poets 
from  mistakes.  Lists  were  furnished  of  proper  epithets 
for  frequent  nouns;  thus  aer  could  be  liquidus  and  igneus 
and  a  few  other  things,  but  under  no  circumstances  any- 
thing else.  Clearly  a  system  which  engendered  such 
absurdities  was  not  destined  to  long  life.  Two  events 
came  to  the  rescue  of  humanism.  One  was  its  transfer 
to  the  other  countries,  where  its  vital  elements  were  bound 
to  take  hold,  and  where  the  absence  of  patriotic  interest 
left  the  judgment  more  free  and  critical;  though  France 
was  somewhat  bitten  with  Ciceronianism,  though  the 
delicate  Ascham  approved  it,  the  sturdy  sense  of  the 
greatest  men  of  the  period,  like  Erasmus  and  Bacon, 
dealt  it  crushing  blows. 

The  other  event  was  the  Protestant  Reformation. 
The  relation  of  the  Reformation  to  humanism  is  somewhat 
complex.  In  its  wilder  and  iconoclastic  manifestations 
it  was  the  foe  of  all  culture,  but  the  national  element  in 
protest  against  Rome  should  not  be  forgotten.  Nation- 
ality is  allied  to  secularism,  and  both  are  allied  to  human- 
ism. Further,  the  method  of  the  schoolmen  had  a  stronger 
hold  in  the  North,  especially  in  France,  the  land  of  its 
birth,  than  it  had  in  Italy.  There  the  normal  antago- 
nist of  humanism  was  the  Sorbonne,  and  the  Sorbonne 
stood   for   Catholic   theology   and   the   Roman   church. 


The  New  Education  275 

Thus  George  Buchanan,  in  temperament  much  Hke  Eras- 
mus, at  any  rate  untouched  by  the  evangehcal  fervor  of 
Protestantism,  found  it  natural,  not,  like  Erasmus,  to 
remain  in  the  Roman  fold,  but  with  many  of  his  French 
associates  to  go  over  to  Protestantism.  In  Italy  this 
via  media  did  not  exist.  It  was  humanism  and  the 
church,  or,  for  the  humanist  who  did  not  care  for  the 
church,  it  was  humanism  and  neo-paganism.  Now  while 
we  must  appreciate  the  great  service  performed  by  the 
Reformation  for  the  humanistic  ideal,  and  admire  char- 
acters like  Melanchthon  and  Zwingli,  and  not  form  hasty 
generalizations  on  the  barrenness  of  Puritanism  when 
it  includes  a  Milton,  we  must  also  recognize  the  other 
half  of  the  truth  which  I  have  just  suggested,  namely, 
that  the  exaggerations  of  the  spirit  of  the  Reformation 
were  a  blow  to  culture,  and  that  they  must  be  reckoned 
as  a  second  force  operative  against  the  classics. 

From  France  there  proceeded  another  disturbing 
influence  toward  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
the  famous  Querelle  des  anciens  et  des  jnodernes.  The 
moderns,  whose  sentiments  first  found  effective  expres- 
sion in  Charles  Perrault  and  his  poem  on  Le  siecle  de 
Louis  le  Grand  (published  1687),  represented  a  whole- 
some national  and  Christian  feeling,  but  committed 
absurdities  both  in  the  defense  of  their  own  position  and 
in  their  attacks  on  the  ancients.  The  chronological  argu- 
ment loomed  large.  With  centuries  of  high  achievement 
behind  them,  why  should  not  the  present,  profiting  by 
experience,  do  still  greater  things?  This  reasoning 
seemed  convincing,  so  long  as  the  modern  illustrations 
of  superiority  were  not  mentioned;  Avhen  Chapelain  and 
Desmarets  were  adduced  as  such,  the  proof  fell  rather 
fiat.     For  the  literary  works  of  the  moderns,  so  far  from 


276  Humanistic  Studies 

representing  anythinp;  of  the  spirit  of  romantic  revolt, 
were  pseudo-classic  in  character,  and  their  literary  criti- 
cism was  distinctly  pseudo-classic.  Virgil  came  off 
fairly  well  at  their  hands;  it  was  because  he  stood  several 
centuries  nearer  modernity  than  Homer  did,  and  because 
he  was  comparatively  free  from  glaring  inelegancies. 
On  Homer  fell  the  brunt  of  their  attack;  the  vulgar  char- 
acters admitted  into  his  poems,  and  the  indecorous 
behavior  of  his  nobilities,  made  him  an  obvious  target  for 
the  well-mannered  critic  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
The  reply  of  the  beleaguered  classicists  is  not  particularly 
significant.  Most  of  them  were  ready  to  acknowledge 
the  superiority  of  Virgil  over  Homer;  in  fact,  it  had  been 
accepted  ever  since  Vida  and  the  Renaissance,  and  most 
vituperatively  proclaimed  by  the  elder  Scaliger.  Fene- 
lon,  it  is  true,  refused  to  decide  between  the  poets,  and 
Madame  Dacier  even  gave  the  palm  to  Homer.  But  her 
declaration  that  nature  had  exhausted  its  resources  in 
Homer  and  had  not  the  power  to  produce  another  like 
him,  is  of  the  excessive,  pseudo-classic  sort  of  criticism 
that  makes  appreciation  stagnant. 

At  all  events,  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century  was 
not  an  auspicious  epoch  for  the  classics,  especially  for 
Greek.  Indeed,  it  would  seem  that  nobody  had  really 
entered  into  the  spirit  of  Greek  literature,  save  possibly 
the  members  of  the  Pleiade  in  the  sixteenth  century,  since 
its  recovery  in  the  Renaissance.  The  interrelation  of 
Greek  and  Latin,  the  dependency  of  Latin  literature  was 
recognized;  Latin  is  a  rivulet,  Greek  a  mighty  river, 
said  Erasmus,  in  the  words  of  Cicero.  Ascham  laughs  at 
the  good  bishop  who  thought  the  need  of  the  Greek  tongue 
was  fulfilled  now  that  everything  had  been  translated 
into   Latin,    and   compares   the   Latin   scholar   without 


The  New  Education  277 

Greek  to  a  bird  of  one  wing.  At  the  same  time  a  remark 
of  his  own  betrays  an  inteUigence  hardly  finer  than  the 
Bishop's:  ''And  surely,"  he  says,  "if  Varro's  Books  had 
remained  to  Posterity,  as  by  God's  Providence  the  most 
part  of  Tully  did,  then  truly  the  liatin  tongue  might  have 
made  good  comparison  with  the  Greek." 

Are  we  distressed,  sometimes,  that  we  live  no  more 
in  the  ages  of  accepted  humanism,  and  that  Greek  is 
going  to  the  wall?  We  have  only  to  remember  that  it 
has  seen  gloomy  days,  days  of  misappreciation,  before. 
Even  in  the  sixteenth  century  Casaubon  could  write: 
"I  am  deep  in  Athenaeus,  and  I  hope  my  labor  will  not 
be  in  vain.  But  one's  industry  is  sadly  damped  by  the 
reflection  how  Greek  is  now  neglected  and  despised. 
Looking  to  posterity  or  the  next  generation,  what  motive 
has  one  for  devotion  to  study?" 

We  should  take  heart  of  grace,  likewise,  in  recalling 
that  educational  follies  are  not  exclusively  the  product 
of  the  nineteenth  and  twentieth  centuries:  Montaigne's 
father  brought  him  up  by  the  latest  pedagogy.  "As  to 
Greek,"  he  remarks,  "of  which  I  have  but  a  mere  smat- 
tering, my  father  also  designed  to  have  it  taught  me  by 
a  trick;  but  a  new  one,  and  by  way  of  sport;  tossing  our 
declensions  to  and  fro,  after  the  manner  of  those  who, 
by  certain  games  at  tables  and  chess,  learn  geometrj'  and 
arithmetic.  For  he,  amongst  other  rules,  had  been 
advised  to  make  me  relish  science  and  duty  by  an  unforced 
will  and  of  my  own  voluntary  motion."  We  see  that  the 
method  of  "not  teaching  but  informally  introducing" 
is  not  the  last  word  of  the  latest  philosophy.  In  such 
fear  was  this  good  father  that  he  might  disturb  the  brain 
of  his  child  that  in  the  morning  he  did  not  rudely  wake 
him  by  a  shake  but  had  gentle  music  played  to  him  that 


278  Humanistic  Studies 

the  waking  might  be  gradual.  This  educational  scheme 
did  not  last  very  long;  the  boy  was  so  heavy,  idle,  and 
indisposed  that,  he  declares,  ''they  could  not  rouse  me 
from  my  sloth,  not  even  to  get  me  out  to  play."  He 
therefore  was  sent  to  school,  where  the  discipline  was  so 
strict  that  he  enjoyed  reading  Ovid  on  the  sly;  even  so 
the  poet  Lowell  cut  conic  sections  for  a  private  hour  with 
Aeschylus. 

To  pass  on  now  to  the  eighteenth  century,  we  may 
note  pseudo-classic  influences  in  all  the  countries  as  a 
preservative  of  the  humanistic  scheme — they  preserved 
by  embalming  it,  but  contributed  nothing  to  its  growth. 
In  France,  especially,  Roman  Catholic  education  was 
closely  identified  with  the  Jesuits;  from  the  end  of  the 
sixteenth  century  they  had  shown,  by  basing  their  own 
instruction  upon  the  classics,  particularly  the  Latin  classics, 
that  humanism  was  not  the  exclusive  property  of  the 
Reformers.  The  famous  Delphin  editions,  published 
toward  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century  for  a  very 
indifferent  young  Dauphin,  proved  acceptable  in  many 
other  schools  besides  those  of  the  Jesuits.  The  order 
maintained  its  prominence  in  education  in  the  eighteenth 
centurj^,  and  has  not  ceased  its  activities  today.  What- 
ever else  may  be  said  of  this  illustrious  company,  it  is 
interesting  to  note  that  its  tremendous  missionary  under- 
takings have  been  the  product,  or  the  concomitant,  of  an 
educational  system  that  is  classical,  if  not  pseudo-classical, 
in  character.  England  was  not  influenced  vitally  by  the 
Jesuits  in  the  eighteenth  century,  but  in  its  own  way 
maintained  the  supremacy  of  the  classics.  ''All  the 
faculties  of  the  mind,"  remarked  Gibbon,  "may  be 
exercised  by  the  study  of  ancient  literature."  A  classical 
training  was  firmly  believed  to  be  an  admirable  preparation 


The  New  Education  279 

for  political  life.  Statesmen  like  Chatham  and  Fox  and 
Pitt  and  Burke  did  not  fail  to  recognize  its  bearing  upon 
modern  problems,  or  to  point  an  argument  with  a  classi- 
cal quotation.  They  were  simply  continuing  the  tradi- 
tion that  we  have  seen  before  in  Bacon,  and  before  him 
in  Vittorino,  and  before  him  in  Dante. 

To  England,  too,  is  due  a  fresh  appreciation  of  ancient 
literature  for  the  reason  that  the  meaning  of  Homer  was 
at  last  beginning  to  grow  clear.  Pope,  whatever  his 
offenses,  deserves,  with  Bentley,  whom  he  abused,  no 
small  share  of  the  credit,  and  Blackwell  and  Wood  made 
further  advance.  This  is  a  quiet  little  movement,  the 
approach  to  romanticism  in  eighteenth-century  England, 
and  a  gain  for  classical  education.  But  the  doctrines  of 
Rousseau  and  the  impetus  of  the  French  Revolution 
broke  in  a  romantic  storm  which  in  principle  carried  with 
it  little  reverence  for  antiquity.  At  the  same  time  it 
benefited  the  classics  bj'  clearing  away  false  notions  of 
their  immaculateness,  and  by  revealing  Greek  afresh. 
For  the  latter  event  we  must  be  grateful  not  only  to 
England  but  to  the  German  school  of  criticism,  inaugu- 
rated before  the  days  of  Romanticism  by  Winckehnann, 
and  completed  by  Lessing,  Herder,  Schiller,  and  Goethe. 
True,  in  this  Teutonic  Hellenism  there  are  exaggerations, 
strange  lights  that  never  shone  on  land  or  sea,  and  it  led 
to  a  dearth  in  the  appreciation  of  Latin  literature  in 
Germany,  down  till  only  a  few  years  ago.  England  took 
the  movement  more  soberly.  Wordsworth,  the  high 
priest  of  nature,  could  look  back  to  Horace  and  sigh  for 

The  humblest  note  of  those  sad  strains. 

No  change  in  the  humanistic  ideal  was  made  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  wherever  that  ideal  was  truly  inter- 


280  Humanistic  Studies 

preted.  Arnold  of  Rugby,  who  typifies  English  educa- 
tion at  its  best,  founded  his  system  on  the  classics.  "The 
study  of  language,"  he  said,  "seems  to  me  as  if  given  for 
the  very  purpose  of  forming  the  human  mind  in  youth; 
and  the  Greek  and  Latin  languages  ....  seem 
the  very  instruments  by  which  this  is  to  be  effected." 
Arnold  was  also  deeply  impressed  with  the  moral  inspira- 
tion that  comes  from  association  with  the  past,  not  only 
with  the  literature  of  the  past,  but  with  the  very  build- 
ings in  which  education  has  made  its  home.  "There  is, 
or  there  ought  to  be,"  he  declares,  "something  very 
ennobling  in  being  connected  with  an  establishment  at 
once  ancient  and  magnificent,  where  ....  all  the 
associations  belonging  to  the  objects  around  us,  should 
be  great,  splendid,  and  elevating.  What  an  individual 
ought  and  often  does  derive  from  the  feeling  that  he  is 
born  of  an  old  and  illustrious  race,  from  being  familiar 
from  his  childhood  with  the  walls  and  trees  which  speak 
of  the  past  no  less  than  the  present,  and  make  both  full 
of  images  of  greatness,  this,  in  an  inferior  degree,  belongs 
to  every  member  of  an  ancient  and  celebrated  place  of 
education."  Finally,  Arnold  directed  the  enthusiasm 
thus  gained  from  the  past  upon  the  immediate  present. 
He  writes  to  a  friend:  "I  cannot  deny  that  you  have  an 
anxious  duty — a  duty  which  some  might  suppose  was  too 
heavy  for  your  years.  But  it  seems  to  me  the  nobler  as 
well  as  the  truer  way  of  stating  the  case  to  say,  that  it  is 
the  great  privilege  of  this  and  other  institutions,  to 
anticipate  the  common  time  of  manhood;  that  by  their 
whole  training  they  fit  the  character  for  manly  duties 
at  an  age  when,  under  another  system,  such  duties  would 
be  impracticable."  The  classics,  he  thought,  then,  so 
far  from  abstracting  the  learner  from  the  present,  prepare 


The  New  Education  281 

him  more  speedily  than  any  other  system  does  for  its 
service. 

As  we  go  farther  in  the  nineteenth  century,  and  espe- 
cially as  we  come  to  our  own  times,  we  are  forced  to 
acknowledge  that  to  many  thinkers  the  classics  are  no 
longer  an  indispensable  part  of  education.  The  causes 
of  this  attitude  are  not  far  to  seek — romanticism,  natural- 
ism, and  the  breaking-down  of  authority  of  all  kinds. 
Germany  has  contributed  largely.  Germany  redis- 
covered Greek  literature  and  exterminated  Latin.  Ger- 
many has  led  the  way  to  the  scientific  study  of  the 
classics,  and  garnered  more  results  than  any  other  nation. 
It  contributed  the  philosophy  of  relativity  which,  join- 
ing forces  with  the  doctrine  of  evolution,  the  product  of 
English  science,  led  to  new  methods  and  manifold  results 
in  the  study  of  history.  But  an  excessive  scrutiny  of 
origins  has  impaired  the  efficacy  of  the  classics.  The 
tendency  of  the  historical  spirit  is  to  compel  illustrious 
characters  of  the  past  to  know  their  place,  whereas  the 
Middle  Ages  and  the  Renaissance  summoned  the  ancients 
to  transgress  their  periods — yes,  to  walk  down  the  cen- 
turies and  shake  hands.  A  late  mediaeval  tapestry  at 
Langeais  sets  forth  a  goodly  troop  of  knights,  all  capari- 
soned cap-a-pie  in  the  same  manner;  they  are  Godfrey 
of  Bouillon,  Julius  Caesar,  Samson,  and  some  others. 
We  shudder  when  we  find  the  Byzantine  chronicler 
Malalas  putting  Polybius  before  Herodotus,  or  John  the 
Scot  setting  Martianus  Capella  in  the  times  of  Cicero, 
but  are  ourselves  inclined  to  forget  that,  though  history 
has  its  periods,  the  imagination  has  none.  We  should 
encourage  it  to  glorious  anachronisms,  or  rather  hyper- 
chronisms,  for  if  it  is  chronologically  fettered  the  classics 
become  demodernized.     A  further  tendency  of  historical 


282  Humanistic  Studies 

analysis  is  to  resolve  great  personalities  and  traditions 
into  causes  and  effects.  An  author  is  not  regarded  as  an 
entity  unless  he  is  influencing  somebody  else;  when  the 
critics  look  at  him,  he  disappears  in  a  mist  of  sources. 
Let  me  not  be  misunderstood.  I  regard  the  critical 
method  of  the  historian  as  indispensable;  but  this  very 
method  is  imperfect  if  it  does  not  reckon  with  ethical  and 
imaginative  values  as  well. 

But  to  proceed  no  further  with  this  arraignment  of  the 
age,  l(jt  me  conclude  by  referring  to  the  hardest  problem 
of  all,  which  has  been  gradually  accumulating  for  our 
generation,  namely,  the  presence  of  various  modern  liter- 
atures of  great  power  and  beauty,  which  were  only 
beginning  to  exist  when  the  humanists  based  all  teaching 
on  the  classics.  May  not  the  literature  of  any  of  the 
great  nations  of  Europe  serve  the  purpose  as  effectively  ? 
How  can  we  neglect  any  of  them,  and  how  can  we  elect  ? 
Further,  I  would  inquire,  how  have  we  teachers  of  the 
classics  fulfilled  our  tasks  ?  Have  we  always  kept  before 
us  the  true  ideal  of  humanism  ?  Have  we  made  the 
sacred  past  living  and  contemporary,  or  have  we  banished 
our  subject  to  a  timeless  district,  illumined,  not  by  the 
dry  light  of  reason,  which  is  a  wholesome  effluence,  but 
by  the  dry  darkness  of  the  unprofitable  ?  I  raise  these 
issues  contentedly  and  bequeath  them  to  the  other 
speakers  at  this  meeting.  With  many  startUng  leaps 
down  the  centuries,  and,  I  fear,  with  many  hasty  gener- 
alizations, I  have  at  least  made  clear  that  the  true  program 
of  humanism,  which  is  nothing  but  the  ancient  program 
revived,  has  always  pointed  men  to  the  treasured  ideals 
of  the  past  and  inspired  them  to  action  in  the  present. 


The  New  Education  283 

II.     THE  CLASSICS  AND  THE  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM 

R.  M.  WENLEY 

University  of  Michigan 

TlTepo(f)vea) 

My  classical  colleagues — whom  I  hold  in  due  awe, 
knowing  just  enough  to  appreciate  my  dense  ignorance 
in  their  field — have  evinced  no  little  temerity  in  summon- 
ing me  to  this  assize.  As  for  them,  I  can  only  suppose 
that  they  think  philistinism  an  incurable  disease,  and 
that,  hopeless,  they  revert  to  the  consolations  of  phi- 
losophy. Unhappily,  consolations  are  very  like  salt 
water:  the  more  we  slake  our  thirst,  the  thirstier  we  grow. 
So  I  issue  fair  warning. 

"The  Classics  and  the  Elective  System!"  What  shall 
I  say  ?  Shall  I  hark  back  to  the  benches  of  that  distant 
Greek  classroom,  nigh  forty  years  down  the  files  of  time, 
alas,  and  transcribe  this  early  effort?  "The  Isles  of 
Greece  were  always  quarreling  as  to  which  was  the  birth- 
place of  Homer.  Chaos  has  the  best  right  to  claim  him." 
Rather  let  me  exclaim — 

Exegi  monumentum  aere  perennius — 

"I  have  eaten  a  monument  more  lasting  than  brass," 
as  a  Glasgow  student  translated  on  an  auspicious  morn- 
ing; "Then,  for  God's  sake,  sir,  sit  down  and  digest  it," 
as  Ramsay  retorted  instantly.  Worse  luck,  I  too  must 
perform  the  operation  "ore  tenus";  worse  still,  "magna 
comitante  caterva." 

Why,  the  job's  as  bad 
As  if  you  tried  by  reason  to  be  mad. 

Like  comets,  earthquakes,  trusts,  suicide,  and  anarch- 
ism, not  to  mention  other  lambent  phenomena,  the  elect- 
ive system  may  be  tracked  to  its  causes.     Whether  these 


284  Humanistic  Studies 

vindicate  its  oxistonco  were  another  question.  For,  as 
every  Freshman  piiilosopher  discovers,  it  is  one  thing  to 
justify  the  ways  of  God  to  men,  another  to  justify  the 
ways  of  men  to  God.  Let  me  step  in  where  Mr.  Rand 
feared  to  tread.  What  a  truncated  business  the  knowl- 
edge of  a  century  ago  appears  to  us  now.  Given  the 
eighteen  bodies  forming  the  solar  system,  with  inertia 
and  gravitation,  it  was  possible  both  to  tell  and  to  fore- 
tell their  positions  relative  to  each  other  in  space.  Nothing 
had  been  learned  of  their  physical  constitution — the 
future  held  Kirchhoff's  happy  birth.  In  the  same  way, 
chemistry  was  just  breaking  the  bonds  of  the  phlogiston 
legend,  sorry  recriminations  resounding.  Gelatine  was 
believed  to  be  the  febrifuge  agency  in  quinine,  while 
otherwise  the  less  said  of  the  "sciences"  of  medicine, 
physiology,  and  the  rest,  the  better.  The  surprise  bath — 
tumble  the  patient  from  a  high  tower  into  an  icy  tub — 
was  prescribed  as  a  remedy  for  insanity,  on  the  prin- 
ciple that  like  cures  like,  I  presume.  Further,  if  these 
marvelous  fribbles  characterized  nature-study,  the  notions 
entertained  about  man,  in  his  total  structure  and  history, 
might  well  be  described  by  Terence's  line:  "Better  or 
worse,  help  or  hurt,  they  see  nothing  but  what  suits  their 
humor."  Even  Hej'ne,  as  you  Grecians  remember,  could 
only  gird  at  F.  A.  Wolf — his  greatest  title  to  fame.  But 
a  profound  revolution  had  set  in.  Thereafter  followed: 
(1)  the  extension  and  almost  complete  transformation  of 
mathematics  and  the  physical  sciences;  (2)  the  growth 
and  progressive  subdivision  of  the  biological  sciences; 
(3)  the  organization  and  startling  ramifications  of  the 
human  sciences;  (4)  inventions — the  application  of  the 
new  knowledge  in  engineering,  commerce,  manufactures, 
and  the  immense  multiplication  of  practical  outlets. 


The  New  Education  285 

As  a  consequence,  numerous  subjects  forced  their  way 
into  the  curriculum.  It  were  superfluous  to  specify,  but, 
as  everyone  is  aware,  unprecedented  enlargement  ensued. 
At  length,  as  has  been  alleged,  so  bemused  did  we  become 
by  the  very  wealth  of  our  own  successes,  that  we  aban- 
doned the  problem  of  higher  education  and  clambered 
into  the  elective  automobile — the  omnibus  being  voted 
too  slow — recking  not  of  destination.  Having  little 
Latin,  we  had  never  heard  Seneca's  comment:  "Among 
other  evils,  folly  has  this  special  peculiarity:  it  is  always 
beginning  to  live."  In  a  word,  the  tried  education  went 
by  the  board,  adjudged  inadequate  or  even  "sterile." 
Such  was  the  first  stage. 

The  sequel  next,  an  oft-told  tale  that  runs  somewhat 
thus:  The  world  of  our  habitation  had  changed  so 
radically  that  we  attributed  a  parallel  transformation 
to  man.  So,  without  much  reflection,  we  presumed  that 
any  boy  or  girl,  at  nigh  any  age,  might  study  anything 
with  advantage.  The  idea  flourished  luxuriantly  within 
the  university.  Pursuits  permissible  to  the  graduate, 
after  extensive  preparatory  drill,  seeped  into  the  under- 
graduate college.  Pathetic  spectacles  ensued.  The  god- 
dess fled  our  altars,  because  the  high  mass  of  the  human 
spirit  had  fallen  into  desuetude.  Like  his  prototype, 
the  political  parson,  the  wire-pulling  professor  served 
other  deities.  We  were  midmost  a  sorry  comedy,  of  the 
kind  that  takes  its  rise  in  the  second-rate.  Talk  about 
culture  and  other  precious  possessions  had  displaced  the 
fact.  Horizons  had  been  destroyed.  The  arts  faculty, 
in  particular,  had  gone  to  pieces — what  did  it  im])ort 
after  all?  The  professional  school  alone  provided  a 
center  of  real  "work."  In  these  days  every  inhabitant 
of  Israel  did  as  seemed  good  in  his  own  eyes.     And  now 


286  Humanistic  Studies 

we  are  wondering— wondering  why  these  things  be! 
We  may  take  this  indictment  as  we  please,  the  patent 
truth  is,  some  very  serious  problems  are  upon  us,  and  we 
cannot,  indeed  dare  not,  evade  them.  Blink  it  as  we 
may,  trumpet  our  numbers  and  appliances  as  we  choose, 
a  fateful  situation  exists  relative  to  the  future. 

The  elective  system  and  classical  studies  belong  to  the 
arts  faculty.  Therefore  I  am  restricted  to  this  aspect  of 
higher  education.  Fortunately  the  limitation  renders  the 
subject  less  hopeless  and  unmanageable,  even  if  the  under- 
graduate jungle  be  thick.  Further,  I  must  address 
myself  to  the  select  class  of  reasonable  and,  above  all, 
independent  men,  leaving  my  hearer  to  fit  the  cap.  For 
I  do  not  propose  to  manipulate  statistics,  although  I  have 
them — this  were  too  easy.  On  the  contrary,  I  desire  to 
arouse  reflection. 

As  I  see  it,  the  problem  presents  two  phases.  (I) 
Remembering  that  we  are  to  consider  the  mother  faculty 
alone,  we  cannot  ask,  What  is  a  university?  But  we 
must  inquire.  What  is  the  condition  requisite  for  the 
continued  efficiency  of  higher  education  under  present 
circumstances  ?  (II)  This  immediately  raises  the  pendant 
question,  What  arrangements  are  most  likely  to  realize 
the  aim  contemplated  ? 


It  is  tolerably  plain  that  any  plan  worthy  the  name 
"educational"  implies  a  definite  purpose.  This  may  be 
easy  or  difficult  to  discern;  without  it,  education  can 
hardly  exist.  What,  then,  is  our  plan  ?  We  may  assert, 
first,  that  it  is  not  the  German  idea.  No  matter  how  some 
may  complain  that  we  have  imitated  Germany,  we  have 


The  New  Education  287 

not  reproduced  her  system;  our  secondary  schools  are 
not  designed  to  prepare  "maturity-examination"  material. 
The  arts  college  makes  no  pretense  of  producing  the  most 
accurate  scholars  imaginable,  or  the  best-disciplined 
experts  in  pure  science.  The  intellectual  aim  has  not 
contrived  to  subordinate  every  other.  Whether  we  con- 
gratulate or  bemoan  ourselves,  we  are  bound  to  recognize 
the  fact.  Nor  can  we  be  said  to  follow  the  French.  Nu- 
merous posts  under  government,  attainable  only  after 
successful  trial  in  competitive  examinations  ad  hoc,  exert 
no  influence  over  the  American  universit}'.  We  know 
next  to  nothing  of  the  severe  apprenticeship  demanded 
by  them.  We  cannot  realize  the  meaning  of  an  academic 
test  that  anchors  a  man  securely  in  a  superior  class.  Once 
more,  thanks  to  social  contrasts,  we  have  drifted  far  from 
Enghsh  practice.  The  very  name  "public  school" 
indicates  why.  With  us  a  public  school  is  an  institution 
supported  by  popular  taxation,  providing  instruction 
free  or  at  nominal  charges,  on  the  ground  that  this  is  a 
necessity  if  we  are  to  develop  "intelligent  citizenship." 
With  the  English  a  public  school  is  an  expensive  private 
school  maintained  to  provide  from  the  "directing  classes" 
men  who  may  be  trusted  to  serve  the  empire  in  respon- 
sible capacities,  or  designed  to  perpetuate  this  type  of 
training.  Consequently  the  colleges  of  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge are  in  man}'  respects  continuations  of  the  public 
schools.  There  is  no  such  break  between  school  and 
university  discipline  in  England  as  in  the  United  States, 
or  even  in  Germany.  Nevertheless  the  American  boy 
"goes  to  school"  at  Ann  Arbor,  Chicago,  Iowa  City.  In 
contrast  with  these  countries,  our  purpose  is  expressed 
frequently  in  the  somewhat  vague  phrase,  "preparation 
for  life."     Vague,  I  say,  because  life  happens  to  be  fluid 


288  Humanistic  Studies 

and  equivocal,  especially  in  this  new  land  of  kaleidoscopic 
shifts  and  manifold  experiments.  So  the  statement 
bristles  with  possibility  of  quibble.  What  better  proof 
of  this  could  we  desire  than  the  existence  of  the  elective 
system  itself? 

Now,  if  you  ask  me — as  you  must  here — to  attempt 
an  interpretation,  I  am  compelled  to  raise  certain  ques- 
tions. On  the  one  hand.  Do  we  mean  education  to 
mold  life?  On  the  other  hand,  Do  we  intend  life  to 
dictate  education  ?  Or,  combining  both,  Are  we  inter- 
ested more  in  the  quality  of  person  whom  we  produce 
or  in  the  niche  he  will  fill,  perchance,  the  moment  he 
escapes  the  campus?  Let  us  be  quite  frank,  and  make 
the  confession  that  is  good  for  the  soul.  If  we  thus  con- 
front the  reality,  the  dilemma  solves  itself,  of  course. 
We  allow  life  to  dictate  education,  and  material  life  at 
that.  We  dote  on  the  "position,"  we  reflect  very  little 
on  the  man.  Our  foremost  thought  is  vocation;  we  even 
have  difficulty  in  grasping  the  bare  import  of  avocation. 
We  plagiarize  from  the  world  of  utility,  and  are  so  insen- 
sible of  our  debt  that  we  plume  ourselves  on  the  "origi- 
nality" of  our  system,  and  flaunt  it  before  foreigners  as 
a  model.  We  figure  our  pupils  as  eventual  pedagogues, 
clerks,  salesmen,  journalists,  landscape-gardeners,  Hbrary- 
assistants,  and  so  forth.  It  seldom  occurs  to  us  that, 
first  and  foremost,  they  are,  and  must  continue,  human 
beings,  and  that  our  prime  responsibility  is  to  inoculate 
them  with  an  estimate  of  life  commensurate  with  this, 
their  privileged  calling.  Our  education  follows,  it  does 
not  lead,  our  practice.  Hence  the  jibes  hurled  at  our 
devoted  heads  today.  And  the  elective  system  is  nothing 
more  nor  less  than  the  principal  form  in  which  utilitarian 
accommodation  levies  blackmail  upon  our  universities. 


The  New  Education  289 

It  exhibits  compromise  on  a  big  scale.  Now  compromise 
is  weakness  or  indecision.  And  as  both  parties  to  it — 
our  Hfe  no  less  than  our  education — lack  definite  back- 
bone, the  equivalence  of  interests  resultant  were  surely 
something  to  consider  critically  rather  than  to  flourish 
as  a  paragon  of  perfection.  Anarchy  plus  the  bread- 
basket offers  a  curiosity  in  ideals!  At  all  events,  I  am 
acquainted  with  but  a  single  defense  for  our  "educational " 
purpose.  You  may  take  it  or  spurn  it  as  you  prefer. 
Opportunism  is  the  one  "system"  of  life  that  has  carried 
conviction  to  men  who  never  go  through  the  labor  of 
consecutive  thought.  So  far,  then,  the  outcome  is  a 
stalemate. 

But,  by  implication,  I  have  hinted  the  true  purpose  of 
any  such  education  as  an  arts  faculty  can  give  and  retain 
its  reason  for  being.  If  I  be  not  wide  of  the  mark,  the 
tide  of  our  contemporary  routine  is  set,  and  set  decidedly, 
against  originality.  Unluckily,  nobody  can  be  held 
accountable  for  this  deplorable  state  of  things.  It  has 
ensued  naturally  upon  an  expansion  too  rapid  to  escape 
muddle.  On  the  contrary,  the  fundamental  aim  of  an 
arts  faculty  is  precisely  to  elevate  intelligence  above  all 
else,  to  make  men  thoroughly  pervious  to  ideas.  For 
the  primary  condition  of  efficacious  higher  education 
is  intellectual  resilience,  widely  diffused,  constantly 
active,  and,  beyond  everything,  mobilized  upon  definite 
points  of  spiritual  attack.  The  things  of  the  mind,  not 
as  the  decorative  appanage  of  a  favored  few,  not  as  a 
private  concern  of  a  professional  guild,  but  free  to  the 
whole  people,  familiar  equally  to  the  poor  and  to  the  rich 
—these  uplift,  sustain,  and  anneal.  I  declare  emphati- 
cally that  this  process  and  result,  and  nothing  but  this 
process  and  result,  constitute  higher  education.     Remem- 


290  Humanistic  Studies 

ber,  I  have  no  referonco  to  portentous  learning,  to  recon- 
dite information,  or  the  like,  but  to  education — a  certain 
quality  induced  in  men,  which  enables  them  to  evaluate 
the  issues  of  life  as  human  beings  should.  With  it,  peoples 
may  lay  the  potter's  hand  upon  civilization;  without  it, 
they  are  fated  to  become  a  "scape  in  oblivion."  What 
a  flush  of  shame  should  suffuse  our  faces  at  the  thought 
that,  sometimes,  the  arts  faculty  has  sunk  to  the  level  of  a 
"bazaar  or  pantechnicon,  in  which  wares  of  all  kinds  are 
heaped  together  for  sale  in  stalls  independent  of  each 
other";  and  that,  as  an  inevitable  consequence,  mental 
elevation  has  been  displaced  by  the  cant  of  the  "up-to- 
date" — a  naive  euphemism  for  the  "obvious."  Why 
these  terrible  dangers  ?  Because  we  have  had  little  care 
to  think  through  the  indispensable  condition  of  higher 
education.  This  is  none  other  than  conversion  of  spirit, 
a  transformation  of  mind  by  mind,  eventuating  in  dis- 
interested anxiety  for  intellectual  completion.  Genuine 
appreciation,  by  a  personality  made  alert  and  supple, 
is  at  once  the  condition  and  the  outcome  of  higher  edu- 
cation. Of  this  we  can  affirm  with  certainty,  the  edu- 
cation of  man  is  the  judgment  of  man.  And  an  arts 
faculty  finds  its  true  reason  for  being,  simplj^  in  constant 
reminder  to  the  human  spirit  that  it  is  ever  outward 
bound.  We  representatives  of  the  humanities  and  the 
pure  sciences  are  not  here  as  hucksters  of  information, 
but  as  prophets  of  the  Platonized  intelligence  that  repro- 
duces its  own  vision  in  those  who  are  soon  to  transmit 
the  cultural  conscience  of  the  nation.  A  tremendous 
responsibility;  for,  lacking  this  kind  of  conscience,  inde- 
pendence, the  fruit  of  sleepless  vigilance,  will  wither. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  superficialization,  our 
scourge  now,  is  due  to  confusion  between  education  and 


The  New  Education  291 

encyclopedic  instruction.  It  is  a  bane  of  pupal  democ- 
racy, which  never  understands  that  individuals  cannot 
make  a  people,  that  public  spirit  is  important,  not  because 
it  is  public,  but  because  it  is  spirit.  Hence,  in  the  care 
for  immediate  utility,  according  to  individual  hopes, 
intellectual  virtue,  as  a  national  habit,  has  languished. 
Nor  is  any  salvation  likely  under  a  system  that  stands 
for  compromise  on  the  cardinal  points  of  unity  and  liber- 
ality. The  tendency  of  the  elective  system  has  unques- 
tionably been  to  level  down  in  some  studies,  to  foster 
luckless  irrelevancies  and  positive  crudities,  above  all,  to 
obscure  the  fundamental  unity  of  the  arts  course  by  a 
feeble  routine.  Hours  of  credit,  and  idleness,  are  the 
alternatives  it  offers  to  not  a  few,  and  happy  is  he  who 
contrives  to  grab  both.  Nothing  could  well  militate 
more  against  the  end  which  we  arts  teachers  live  to  wit- 
ness— power  in  perspective.  We  are  here  to  enable 
humanity  to  control  itself,  not  to  prolong  the  day  when 
"things  are  in  the  saddle  and  ride  mankind." 

II 

But  how  to  accomplish  our  mission  ?  Let  us  take  an 
example,  and  reason  from  it  to  the  underlying  forces  that 
inform  it.  Listen  to  those  paragraphs.  So  far  as  I  am 
aware,  they  were  written,  not  by  a  great  scientific  author- 
ity, not  by  a  prominent  classical  scholar,  not  by  a  philo- 
sophical genius.  But  I  do  know  that  they  bear  the  hall- 
mark of  an  educated  man,  of  the  kind  who  ought  to  l)e 
the  distinctive  glory  of  the  arts  course.  He  calls  himself 
"Kappa";  he  would  adorn  Phi  Beta  Kappa  rarely. 

Once  more  I  look  abroad  from  my  study  window,  but  this 
time  with  a  different  preoccupation.  What  I  saw  before — 
whether  with  the  bodily  or  the  mental  eye— was  a  clot  of  matter 


292  Humanistic  Studies 

orbed  in  the  turning-lathe  of  cosmic  forces;  swinging  with 
headlong  velocity  round  one  of  an  infinite  host  of  incalculably 
greater  orbs;  carrying  with  it  an  atmosphere  of  subtle  and  com- 
plex chemistry;  swathed  about  with  life-giving  oceans;  its 
crust  built  up  and  crumbled  down  by  the  patient  energies  of 
ten  thousand  ages;  and  clad  as  to  its  surface  in  a  motley  robe, 
woven  of  myriads  of  living,  multiplying,  and  dying  organisms, 
some  of  which,  by  an  ultimate  miracle,  have  broken  loose  from 
their  roots,  and  move  palpitating  through  the  atmosphere,  on 
wings,  or  hooves,  or  feet — or  motor-bicycles.  Now,  as  I  look 
around,  I  fix  my  attention  on  another  order  of  phenomena: 
those  associated  with  the  mental  as  distinct  from  the  merely 
vegetative  functions  of  the  organisms  which,  in  the  absence  of 
auxiliary  mechanism,  move  on  two  feet.  These  creatures  have 
somehow  developed  the  power  of  remembering,  grouping, 
abstracting,  recording,  communicating  their  sense-impressions; 
of  distinguishing  between  the  I  and  the  Not-I;  of  using  tools; 
of  telling  stories  and  singing  songs;  of  forming  societies,  offen- 
sive and  defensive,  which  are  themselves  elaborate  organisms; 
of  killing  each  other  with  weapons  of  far  wider  range  than  the 
tooth  and  claw  of  nature;  of  disputing  about  the  Whence, 
How,  and  Whither  of  life,  and  adopting  theories  for  which  they 

are  willing  to  persecute  or  to  die 

From  my  point  of  outlook,  then,  what  evidences  do  I  see  of 
the  activities  of  this  order  of  beings?  I  see  men  and  women 
labouring  the  earth  with  various  implements,  some  of  them 
drawn  by  horses.  I  see  a  man  on  horseback  inspecting  and 
directing  their  work,  and  infer  that  he  owes  his  place  in  the 
saddle  to  the  fact  of  his  having  more  money,  and  possibly  more 
intelligence,  than  they.  I  see  a  large  red-brick  house,  with 
classic  pilasters  and  cornices,  embowered  in  the  ancient  trees 
of  a  spacious  and  beautiful  park.  I  know  that  it  is  not  the 
home  of  the  labourers  in  the  field,  nor  even  of  the  man  on  horse- 
back, but  of  another  man  to  whom  he  pays  money  for  the 
privilege  of  using  the  land.  At  the  same  time  I  see  people 
freely  passing  across  this  "property,"  thus  showing  that  the 
community  has  certain  prescriptive  rights,  even  as  against  the 

lords  of   the   soil By    the   roadside   stands    a    village 

of  about  a  thousand  people,  with  one  church,  one  school,  three 


The  New  Education  293 

chapels,  and  fourteen  public-houses.  The  church  is  many 
centuries  old,  and  contains  half-effaced  brasses  and  tombs  of 
knights  in  armour,  with  their  ladies  by  their  sides.  Its  archi- 
tecture, its  monuments,  the  doctrines  preached  in  its  pulpit, 
and  the  ritual  conducted  at  its  altar  are  so  many  relics  and 
vestiges,  to  the  understanding  mind,  of  the  spiritual  contests 

and  compromises  of  two  thousand  years I  can  hear 

an  express  train  thundering  along  the  railroad  on  the  other 
side  of  the  valley.  It  is  one  of  the  greatest  of  world-highways, 
issuing  out  from  a  giant  city,  a  nation  in  itself,  and  carrying 
men  the  first  stage  of  their  journey  to  the  remotest  regions  of 
the  globe.  It  passes  by  earthworks  piled  by  races  whose  very 
names  are  forgotten;  battlefields  where  the  fate  of  dynasties 
was  decided;  glorious  cathedrals,  like  arks  left  stranded  on  the 
hill-tops  by  the  shrinking  of  a  deluge  of  faith;  volcanic  chains 
of  furnaces,  sending  forth  pillars  of  cloud  by  day,  of  fire  by 
night;  and  vast,  clanging  factories,  where  the  forces  that  for 
aeons  lay  dormant  in  matter  have  at  last  been  enslaved  by  man, 
and  have  in  their  turn  imposed  on  him  the  fetters  of  an  abhor- 
rent thraldom. 

On  every  square  inch,  in  fact,  of  this  portion  of  the  planet, 
unnumbered  generations  of  men  have  left  their  stamp;  and  it 
is  even  now  the  abiding-place  of  a  generation  which  is  battling 
— blindly  and  purblindly,  in  wisdom  and  in  folly — with  the 
thousand  problems  of  its  own  and  its  children's  fate.  Its  name 
— England — is  writ  large  in  the  annals  of  mankind,  for  the  past 
thousand  years.  It  is  a  treasure-house  of  great  and  inspiring, 
or  humbling  and  chastening,  memories.  Love  yearns  toward 
it,  hatred  scowls  at  it.  The  burden  of  greatness  lies  heavy  on 
it,  and  its  sons  are  partakers  in  a  tremendous  responsibility; 
for  it  is  one  of  the  six  or  eight  organized  societies  of  men  which 
must  work  out,  in  co-operation  or  in  contest,  the  future  of  the 
race. 

Through  the  open  window  floats  the  sound  of  a  distant 
voice,  and  a  nearer  voice  replies:  "I  am  coming  immediately." 
The  first  three  words  call  up  before  the  mind's  eye  the  Baltic 
fenland  or  Frisian  forest,  whence  they  were  imported  fifteen 
hundred  years  ago.  The  last  word,  more  sonorous  and  stately, 
"sounds  forever  of  Imperial  Rome."     Its  syllables  were  heard 


294  Humanistic  Studies 

in  the  four-square  village  on  the  Palatine,  and  were  familiar 
to  the  lips  of  Cicero  and  Caesar.' 

Now,  these  paragraphs  tingle  with  intimation.  Scan 
thcin  even  a  little,  and  you  will  find  that  they  convey  at 
least  five  important  truths.  (1)  The  classics  dare  not 
continue  to  subsist  upon  a  perpetual  dream  of  possibilities. 
For  (2)  under  modern  circumstances  an  educated  person 
must  know  something  (a)  of  nature,  meaning  either  the 
stable  physical  universe,  or  the  living  organisms  illustrat- 
ing "matter"  in  unstable  equilibrium;  (6)  of  man,  mean- 
ing thereby  man's  significant  creations — language,  society, 
morals,  literature  and  art,  religion,  and  so  on.  (3)  A 
human  being  cannot  be  held  educated  unless  he  possess 
ability  to  set  the  miscellany  of  acquisition  in  philosophical 
perspective,  and  thus  to  divine  the  internal  affiliations 
of  wayward  facts.  As  Darwin  put  it,  ''no  one  can  be  a 
good  observer  unless  he  is  an  active  theorizer."  (4) 
Grasp  of  historical  development  is  an  essential  condition 
of  authentic  knowledge,  it  makes  little  difference  in  what 
field.  (5)  Education  itself  is  not  a  "subject,"  the  corpus 
vile  for  some  facile  sciolist,  but  a  state  of  the  human  spirit 
whereunto  one  can  be  baptized  only  by  certain  experi- 
ences, and  primarily  by  intercourse  with  masters  who 
incarnate  it  already. 

The  inference  is  not  obscure.  Unity  and  variety  form 
the  poles  of  our  present  pedagogical  antinomy.  As  our 
national  life  grows  more  complex,  whether  by  internal 
division  or  by  immigrant  increment,  the  more  insistent 
becomes  the  call  for  an  educational  system  designed  to 
conserve  its  unitary  ethos.  On  the  contrary,  as  knowledge 
diversifies  and  vocations  spawn,  the  greater  the  need  to 
include  typical  "supporting"  subjects;    but  also,  mark 

1  Let  Youth  but  Know,  69  f. 


The  New  Education  295 

you,  the  greater  the  futihty  of  the  counsel  which  urges 
anybody  to  "learn  everything."  The  student  is  to  know 
something  of  nature,  and  everything  of  man;  or  every- 
thing of  nature,  and  something  of  man.  What  an 
absurdity,  of  course !  The  intent  plainly  is,  that  he  should 
be  grounded  in  natural  science  so  that  he  can  appreciate 
its  standpoint,  method,  and  worth,  whatever  his  pre- 
dominating interest  in  humane  studies,  and  vice  versa; 
the  case  for  all  Wissenschaft,  natural  or  human,  is  iden- 
tical, as  against  seductive  smattering.  A  broad  outlook 
is  imperative,  or,  as  the  editor  of  the  Westminster  Gazette 
says,  the  student  ought  to  have  "a  reasonable  equipment 
of  practical  knowledge,  with  a  mind  awakened  to  the 
interest  and  mystery  of  things,  and  free  from  that  absorp- 
tion in  the  trivial  which  is  one  of  the  worst  signs  of  modern 
youth."  His  preliminary  instruction  cannot  but  be 
largely  utilitarian,  or  disciplinary,  and  more  or  less  in  the 
nature  of  a  "grind."  The  arts  faculty  must  assume  this, 
and  undertake  to  test  fitness  in  its  own  way.  We  may 
note  in  passing  that  at  present  it  makes  little  pretense 
to  search  candidates,  and  as  a  result  deliberately  degrades 
itself  to  the  level  of  a  school.  I  presuppose  that  we  shall 
cease  to  compete  with  preparatory  institutions.  I  pre- 
suppose we  grant  that  every  student  should  learn  the 
outlook  of  science,  and  this  by  means  of  courses  designed 
for  him,  not  for  those  who  intend  to  specialize  on  the 
scientific  side.  Further,  it  is  admitted  that  clas.sical 
partisans  were  wrong  in  their  efforts  to  limit  "sound 
learning"  to  the  languages  of  Greece  and  Rome.  It  is 
asserted  that  they  were  right  in  their  insistence  upon  the 
pursuit  of  knowledge  for  its  own  sake.  It  is  admitted 
that  the  supporters  of  science  were  correct  in  their  pro- 
posal to  adjust  the  curriculum  to  the  vast  extension  of 


290  Humanistic  Studies 

information.     It  is  asserted  that  they  were  mistaken  in 
their  emphasis  upon  utility. 

We  are  left,  then,  with  the  humanistic  subjects,  and 
with  the  aim  of  the  arts  faculty,  to  produce  not  "things," 
but  persons  in  whom  reason  is  exercised  for  insight  upon 
materials  which  compel  this  quality.  In  a  word,  we 
have  to  consider  the  case  of  those  students  who  will  devote 
their  main  attention  to  man.  A  controlled  elective  sys- 
tem, with  sane  options  for  educational  ends,  as  I  have 
described  them,  is  understood.  At  this  point,  the 
situation  begins  to  clear  quickly.  The  human  sciences 
are:  (1)  languages  and  literatures  in  their  numerous 
ramifications;  (2)  historical  studies  in  their  many  devel- 
opments; (3)  economics  in  all  its  branches;  (4)  philosophy 
in  part — for  metaphysics,  logic,  and  epistemology  bear 
as  much  upon  natural  as  upon  human  science.  Each  of 
these  groups  is  interminably  complex.  Accordingly, 
the  student  who  contemplates  "expert"  skill  must  devote 
his  life  to  one,  nay,  to  a  portion  of  this  one.  To  be  direct, 
only  a  fraction  of  those  who  elect  the  humanistic  side 
will  approach  classical  scholarship  as  a  career.  The 
classical  men  must  recognize  the  fact,  and  adjust  them- 
selves to  it.  I  would  not  presume  to  lay  down  a  law  to 
m\'  colleagues  here.  But  they  might  familiarize  them- 
selves with  the  question,  What  can  we  arrange  for  pupils 
who  take  our  courses  merely  as  supports,  and  with  no 
thought  of  eventual  mastery?  I  venture  to  hint  that 
sometimes  the  problem  has  not  been  faced  with  the 
necessary  frankness.  For  those  who  intend  to  become 
classicists,  the  classical  departments  have  both  the  right 
and  the  duty  to  plan  as  they  deem  wisest  on  the  basis  of 
contemporary  demands.  But  for  the  rest,  the  great 
majority,  the  needs  of  other  subjects  should  be  consulted 


The  New  Education  297 

carefully.  This  agreed,  we  cannot  but  recognize  that 
classical  studies  furnish  supports  all  round  in  a  unique 
way.  Without  them,  how  are  men  to  be  philologists; 
to  get  at  the  inwardness  of  the  English  and  the  Romance 
tongues  and  literatures;  to  probe  the  beginnings  of 
Western  philosophy;  to  understand  rhetoric;  to  learn 
the  sources  of  English  style;  to  handle  great  stretches  of 
history;  to  follow  the  development  of  education;  to 
trace  the  present  position  of  jurisprudence;  to  uncover 
the  growth  of  Christianity;  to  appreciate  the  scope  of 
ethics;  to  fathom  the  drama,  and  a  hundred  other  things  ? 
It  seems  inevitable,  therefore,  that,  when  we  recover  our 
sanity  about  educational  values,  we  shall  see  a  revival 
of  the  classics  as  an  essential  accessory.  So  I  must  record 
my  agreement  with  that  ideal  "professor  of  education," 
Matthew  Arnold: 

I  cannot  help  thinking,  therefore,  that  the  modern  spirit 
will  deprive  Latin  and  Greek  composition  and  verl)al  scholar- 
ship of  their  present  universal  and  preponderant  application 
in  our  secondary  schools,  and  will  make  them,  as  practiced  on 
their  present  high  scale,  Privatstudien,  as  the  Germans  say,  for 
boys  with  an  eminent  aptitude  for  them.  For  the  mass  of  boys 
the  Latin  and  Greek  composition  will  be  limited,  as  we  now 
limit  our  French,  Italian,  and  German  composition,  to  the 
exercises  of  translation  auxiliary  to  acquiring  any  language 
soundly;  and  the  verbal  scholarship  will  be  limited  to  learning 
the  elementary'  grammar  and  common  forms  and  laws  of  the 
language  with  a  thoroughness  which  cannot  be  too  exact,  and 
which  may  easily  be  more  exact  than  that  which  we  now  attain 
with  our  much  more  ambitious  grammatical  studies.  A  far 
greater  quantity  of  Latin  and  (Jreek  Uterature  might,  with  the 
time  thus  saved,  be  reatl,  and  in  a  far  more  interesting  manner.' 

1  Higher  Schools  and  Universities  in  Germany  (1882),  171-72. 
Arnold  has  reference,  of  course,  to  the  exclusive  classical  disciphuo  of 
the  great  "public  schools"  of  England,  as  they  then  were.     But,  ixiri 


298  Humanistic  Studies 

The  problem,  then,  is  twofold:  (1)  general  and  (2) 
special. 

(1)  With  regard  to  the  first,  whatever  humanistic  group 
a  neophyte  may  elect,  it  is  essential  that  he  should  be 
turned  out  a  person  to  be  reckoned  with — an  originating 
force.  In  other  words,  he  must  possess  a  nimble  and  full 
mind.  This  difficult,  priceless  acquisition  depends  upon 
individual  effort  directed  toward  material  of  a  certain 
quality.  I  have  indicated  already  from  this  platform^ 
why  the  classics  excel  for  this  purpose,  and  I  need  add 
little.  It  is  fair  to  say,  however,  that  youth  needs  per- 
spective and  a  sense  for  relative  values — never  more  than 
in  these  distracted  times  of  ours.  Now  if  my  experience 
tell  me  anything — and  eight  thousand  students  are  on 
my  head,  in  two  lands  divided  by  many  contrasts — it  is 
this:  sanity  and  insight  cannot  be  obtained  most  read- 
ily and  effectively  from  study  of  "modern"  affairs. 
Inevitably,  judgment  suffers  prejudgment  here.  For 
example,  if  I  insist  that  Browning,  alone  among  nine- 
teenth-century poets,  ranks  with  Homer,  Dante,  Shake- 
speare, and  Goethe,  many  loud  protests  arise  forthwith. 
Whatever  his  greatness,  he  is  not  a  classic  yet,  and  pos- 
sibly he  will  never  become  classical.  Nay,  I,  in  my  turn, 
should  be  compelled  to  admit  the  contention  of  the 
psychologist,  Rabier,  that  the  Frenchman  reading  a  page 
of  a  French  author  "only  half  grasps  it."  That  is,  author 
and  reader  jostle  each  other  so  that  likes  and  dislikes 
destroy  the  balance.  And  what  is  true  of  literature  holds 
of  other  human  creations.     Paul  planted,  Apollos  watered, 

passu,  the  passage  bears  upon  our  old  "college"  curriculum,  and  the 
remedy  holds  for  any  proposed  rearrangement  of  the  elective  system  on 
the  humanistic  side. 

»  Cf.  "The  Nature  of  Culture  Studies."     See  pp.  59  ff. 


The  Xew  Education  299 

but  God  gave  the  increase.  On  the  contrary,  when  j-ou 
turn  to  the  classics  you  find  that  these  distractions 
vanish,  you  become  consubstantial  ^vith  the  substance  of 
your  author.  As  Euripides  has  it,  "the  Greeks  walk  in 
light";  in  this  light  we  see  light  clearly.  Lapse  of  time, 
and  the  happy  fact  that  the  greatest  ancients  could  over- 
look the  social  ''organism"  as  we  never  can,  have  sifted 
things  unseen  and  eternal  from  things  seen  and  temporal. 
By  a  magic  that  is  yet  no  mystery,  we  feel  the  master's 
unerring  touch.  Need  I  do  more  than  suggest  that  you 
compare  the  rivers  of  insipid  stuff  flowing  from  the  modern 
"religious"  press  with  the  classical  splendors  of  the 
Bible?  I  could  name  you  men  whom  Nietzsche  has 
turned  into  purblind  fanatics,  aye,  and,  nearer  home, 
men  whom  even  the  urbane  William  James  has  turned 
into  gibbering  echoes.  But  I  defy  you  to  distil  fanati- 
cism or  fashion  from  Plato  and  Thucydides,  from  Cicero 
and  Livy.  The  classics  are  classical  because  in  them,  as 
concerns  the  intellect,  we  find  the  secret  of  eternal  life. 
They  illustrate,  not  the  surface  play  of  momentary 
events,  so  often  mistaken  for  "history"  at  present,  but 
the  constitutive  operation  of  the  human  spirit,  the  same 
yesterday,  today,  and  forever.  They  reveal  the  quin- 
tessential motive-force  of  significant  achievement;  they 
lay  a  stead}^  finger  upon  the  permanent  factors  of  civili- 
zation, brushing  aside  the  petty  nine  days'  wonders. 
Their  appeal  lies  to  reasonable  and  independent  men, 
by  the  simple  fact  that  nothing  human  is  indifferent  to 
them,  the  indifferently  human  abhorrent.  Accordingly, 
when  it  comes  to  the  condition  for  the  continued  efficiency 
of  higher  education — a  mind 

more  and  more 
Personal,  comprehensive  of  world-life — 


300  Humanistic  Studies 

the  classics  still  furnish  the  surest  guide  to  mastery  in 
our  own  house.  As  a  preparation  for  success  in  any 
humanistic  study,  as  a  preparation  for  maintenance  of 
one's  humanity,  irrespective  of  one's  vocation,  they  are, 
and  must  remain,  incomparable.  He  who  runs  may  read 
the  moral  regarding  their  place  in  any  elective  system 
that  could  command  rational  confidence. 

(2)  With  respect  to  the  second,  classical  representatives 
must  have  a  care  that  some  things  do  not  get  ''between 
the  wind  and  their  nobility."  With  all  diffidence,  and 
fully  aware  of  the  manifold  difficulties,  I  say  to  them  that 
the  great  matter  is  to  renew  the  nature  of  classical  study 
for  the  average  student.  Surely  there  be  persons,  like 
Julius  Caesar,  events,  like  Thermopylae,  principles,  like 
the  golden  mean,  fit  to  convince  men  of  the  import  of 
their  destiny.  Surely  exercises  in  unraveling  the  solu- 
tions of  Greek  and  Roman  affairs  are  admirable  indices 
to  our  weightiest  matters.  Surely  in  these  astonishing 
culminations,  if  anywhere,  we  may  detect  the  nature  of 
man's  travail  with  himself  in  common,  daily  things. 
The  clamant  need  is  to  pierce  to  the  ideas  and  to  the 
movements  mediated  by  them.  Remembering  that  the 
time  is  short,  rapid  and  wide  reading  assumes  prime 
importance.  Put  every  aid  at  the  disposal  of  the  student, 
remove  every  obstacle  to  direct  intercourse,  and  the  sin 
of  curious  specialization  that  doth  so  easily  beset.  The 
depths  and  beauties  of  the  authors  clamor  for  appre- 
ciation. In  some  such  way,  the  classics  can  perform 
inestimable  service  for  the  non-professional  student  and 
in  the  newest  education.  They  enable  him,  first,  to 
reafize  the  winsomeness  of  literature  and  art.  "In  all 
Greek  work,"  as  Percy  Gardner  says,  "whether  poem  or 
speech,  history  or  sculpture,  there  is  an  evenness  of  devel- 


The  New  Education  301 

opment,  a  simplicity  of  motive,  a  beauty  of  outline,  which 
cannot  be  found  elsewhere."  Second,  they  reveal  the  essen- 
tials for  which  man  has  ever  struggled,  will  ever  struggle. 
No  other  section  of  history  is  pregnant  with  such  vasty 
issues  as  the  millennium  from  Draco  to  Justinian.  No 
fitful  fever  this,  but  a  slow,  regular,  most  momentous 
march.  Stamp  its  real  inwardness  upon  the  nascent 
mind,  attune  to  its  wonder,  and  you  have  familiarized 
with  the  majesty  of  mortal  effort.  A  cosmos  looms 
athwart  the  soul,  a  cosmos  set  in  rare  perspective.  What 
were  the  pulsating  influences  that  rendered  it  so  remark- 
able? Miss  them,  and  you  miss  everything.  Alaster 
them,  and  you  are  prepared  for  anything.  A  That- 
handlung,  as  Fichte  expresses  it,  sends  forth  its  pene- 
trating challenge,  deep  calling  unto  deep.  It  is  with 
this  that  the  classical  mentor  of  higher  education  must 
reckon,  for  the  sake  of  other  humanists,  with  no  thought 
of  himself  or  of  his  fenced  corner.  Thirdly,  no  other 
period  of  history  has  so  enriched  the  common  stock  of 
human  ownership.  Greek  literature,  art,  and  philosophy; 
Roman  government  and  law;  Christianity — produce  a 
parallel  inventory!  Now,  we  non-classicists  care  little 
for  the  mere  words  that  convey  these  mighty  things. 
But  we  demand  to  know  the  matter  face  to  face.  Here 
be  documents  of  a  period,  no  doubt,  fashioned  thus  and 
so;  but  what  do  they  tell  ?  We  ask  that  formal  erudition 
be  accounted  secondary  for  our  nurslings.  As  has  been 
well  said,  "disconnected  from  moral,  social,  and  philo- 
sophical considerations,  history,  geography,  and  lin- 
guistics are  still  material  sciences,  just  as  physics  or 
geology.  And  they  have  an  additional  inferiority  in 
being  not  only  much  less  scientific,  but  much  less  useful." 
Accordingly  I  conclude  that  you  classical  teachers  occu})y 


302  Humanistic  Studies 

a  position  of  unique  advantage,  because  you  can  dis- 
entangle these  "moral,  social,  and  philosophical  consid- 
erations" from  technical  accompaniments  which,  however 
final  for  you,  are  accessory  for  us.  In  a  reformed  elective 
system,  with  the  classics  as  the  most  available  foundation 
for  all  humanistic  study,  this  attitude  will  spell  deliverance 
from  banality  all  round.  I  believe  you  are  able  to  con- 
vert even  our  young  barbarians  to  the  conviction  that, 
in  essence,  man  is  distinguished  principally  by  the  things 
of  the  mind.     Admittedly,  perhaps, 

the  times  are  not  yet  ripe 
Save  only  mine  and  thine. 

Yet, 

know,  the  scheme 
Of  truth  develops  in  man's  absolute  mind 
With  grade  from  false  to  true;   the  foregone  truth 
Turn'd  false,  the  truth  to  come  not  yet  ripe  truth, 
Save  for  those  souls  elaborate  beyond 

the  elements  in  which  they  are  immersed.  You  hold  the 
key,  not  to  a  modicum  of  training  or  information,  but  to 
the  most  educative  chapter  in  the  history  of  the  race. 
We  lesser  humanists  cannot  forego  your  aid,  as  I  have 
tried  feebly  to  sketch  it.  Come  over  to  Macedonia  and 
help  us,  but  help  us  according  to  our  necessity. 

"The  Classics  in  the  New  Education !"  May  a  professed 
idealist  speak  a  word  of  cheer  ?  For  a  moment,  under  the 
stress  of  disconcerting  change,  men  may  debase  self- 
study  to  the  level  of  uselessness.  But  ultimately  they 
may  not  doff  their  own  reason.  Thus  they  are  compelled 
to  return  to  investigations  of  human  nature  as  the  single 
means  to  solve  human  questions.  Lese-majeste  may  be 
dangerous  now  or  then,  lese-humanite  spells  sheer  suicide 


The  New  Education  303 

always.  And  if  we  conserve  the  arts  which  Alterthums- 
wissenschaft  reveals  we  shall  never  forget  how  to  charm 
the  gods  of  Olympus  so  that,  as  of  yore,  they  may  descend 
from  their  translucent  heights,  to  make  divine  war  on 
behalf  of  human  mastery  in  human  issues.  For,  as  the 
philosopher  phrases  it,  led  by  his  great  exemplar,  Plato, ^ 
without  a  ''universal"  of  some  kind,  all  capacity  for 
interpretation — the  marrow  of  education — becomes 
hopeless. 


III.  THE  CASE  FOR  THE  CLASSICS 

PAUL  SHOREY 

The  University  of  Chicago 

No  subject  is  too  stale  for  a  "ratthng  speech,"  and  the 
mere  praise  of  the  classics  and  the  exposure  of  the  adver- 
sary still  supply  good  matter  of  rhetoric.^  But  this  paper 
is  to  be  printed,  and  I  hope  with  the  aid  of  footnotes  to 
make  it  a  sufficient,  though  of  course  not  exhaustive, 
historical  resume  and  a  repertory  of  temperate  arguments 
adapted  to  present  conditions.^  To  this  end  I  am  pre- 
pared to  sacrifice  not  only  its  temporary  effect  on  an 
audience  but  any  ambition  I  might  feel  to  attain  the 
symmetry  and  classicism  of  form  which  befit  a  classicist 
speaking  in  his  own  cause  and  which  are  so  admirably 
illustrated  in  the  apologies  for  classical  studies  of  Mill 
and  Jebb  and  Arnold.* 

'  Cf.  Parmen.,  136. 

'  Cf.  Professor  Forman's  Humble  Apolcjy  for  Greek,  Cornell  Uni- 
versity, 1904,  printed  privately. 

»  Cf.  infra,  322-23.  Even  in  1868  Professor  Gildersleeve  had  to 
make  the  same  point  (Essays  and  Studies,  5:  "Dr.  Bigelow  is  figlitiriK 
the  shadows  of  the  past,"  etc. — Ibid.,  10). 

*  Mill,  "Inaugural  Address,"  Dissertations  and  Discussions,  IV, 
332  ff.;    Jebb,  Essays  and  Addresses,  506  ff.;    Humanism  in  Education, 


304  Humanistic  Studies 

The  situation  lias  improved  since  I  had  the  honor  of 
speaking  here  fifteen  or  sixteen  years  ago,  and  many  topics 
which  I  dwelt  on  then  may  be  lightly  enumerated  today. 
The  wearisome  controversy  has  educated  the  participants 
on  both  sides.^  Both  are  more  careful  in  their  dialectic 
and  more  cautious  in  the  abuse  of  exaggeration  and  irrel- 
evancy.- Our  opponents  have  grown  very  shy  of  the 
kind  of  logic  which  delivered  them  into  our  hands,  though 
they  still  grotesquely  misconceive  the  nature  and  aims 
of  our  teaching.^     But  only  a  few  incorrigibles  still  harp  on 

545  ff.;  Present  Tendencies  in  Classical  Studies,  560  ff.,  600  fif.,  566; 
Arnold,  "Literature  and  Science,"  Discourses  in  America,  172  ff.  To 
these  might  be  added  Lowell's  "Harvard  Anniversary  Address,"  Prose 
Works,  VI,  139,  160,  165:  "Oblivion  looks  in  the  face  of  the  Grecian 
Muse  only  to  forget  her  errand,"  166,  174;  and  Latest  Lit.  Essays,  139, 
the  speech  in  which  the  greatest  professor  of  modern  languages  told 
the  Modern  Language  Association:  "I  hold  this  evening  a  brief  for  the 
modern  languages  and  am  bound  to  put  the  case  in  as  fair  a  light  as  I 
conscientiously  can."  See  the  fine  chapter  on  "Reading"  in  Thoreau's 
Walden.  And  for  further  bibliography  of  books  and  papers  referred 
to  in  this  address  cf.  infra,  308,  309-10. 

1  Huxley  (Science  and  Education,  83)  stretched  "nature"  to  include 
"men  and  their  ways,"  and  Arnold  with  more  justice  made  "letters"  in- 
clude Copernicus  and  Darwin  (their  results,  not  their  processes). 

2  Huxley,  op.  cit.,  163;  Jebb,  op.  cit.,  537.  No  rational  advocate 
would  now  recommend  either  Latin  or  botany  on  the  ground  that  it 
exercises  the  memory.     See  Gildersleeve,  op.  cit.,  28. 

3  Cf.  President  David  Starr  Jordan,  Pop.  Sci.  Mo.,  LXXHI  (1908), 
p.  28:  "Once  the  student  cuts  entirely  loose  from  real  objects  and  spends 
his  days  among  diacritical  marks,  irregular  conjugations,  and  distinctions 
without  difference  his  orientation  is  lost."  So  Tyndall  once  demanded 
"a  culture  which  shall  embrace  something  more  than  declensions  and 
conjugations."  What  would  President  Jordan  think  of  a  classicist  who 
characterized  the  study  of  science  as  cutting  loose  from  human  interests 
and  counting  fish-scales  ?  See  Zielinski's  rebuke  of  Father  Petroff, 
pp.  200-201;  Lowe,  "Speech  at  Edinburgh,"  November  1, 1867:  "We  find 
a  statement  in  Thucydides  or  Cornelius  Nepos  who  wrote  500  years 
after  and  we  never  are  instructed  that  the  statement  of  the  latter  is  not 

quite  as  good  as  the  former The  study  of  the  dead  languages 

precludes  the  inquiring  habit  of  mind  which  measures  probabilities " 
[sic].     Cf.  infra,  pp.  314-15. 


The  New  Education  305 

the  false  antithesis  of  words  and  things. ^  The  recollection 
of  Lowell's  eloquent  protest  (VI,  174),  if  nothing  else, 
would  make  them  eschew  the  precious  argument  of 
Herbert  Spencer  and  Lowe  that  Greece  was  such  a  little 
country,  ''no  bigger  than  an  English  county."  Some  of 
them  are  beginning  to  apprehend  the  distinction  between 
education  and  instruction,  formation  and  information.^ 
And  if  any  of  them  still  believe  that  the  intrinsic  excel- 
lence of  classical  literature  is  a  superstition  of  pedants 
they  rarely  venture  to  saj'  so  in  public  in  the  fearless  old 
fashion  of  the  Popular  Science  Monthly.^  We  have  won 
a  victory  at  the  bar  of  educated  opinion  in  which  we  may 
feel  some  complacency,  though  we  must  beware  of  over- 
estimating its  practical  significance.  The  man  in  the 
street  has  not  changed  his  opinion  of  dead  languages, 
and  the  great  drift  of  American  education  and  life  toward 
absorption  in  the  fascinating  spectacle  of  the  present 
has  not  been,  perhaps  cannot  be,  checked.  A  stream 
of  tendency  cannot  be  dammed  by  argument.     As  Pro- 

'  Lowe  at  Edinburgh,  November,  1867;  Spencer,  passim;  Jordan, 
Pop.  Sci.  Mo.,  LXXIII  (1908),  p.  29;  cf.  Youmans,  5,  "The  relation  be- 
tween words  ....  and  ideas  ....  is  accidental  and  arbitrary." 
Cf.  contra  Masson  apud  Taylor,  p.  306;    Mill,  347-48. 

2  Gildersleeve,  Essays  and  Studies,  13;  Zielinski,  28;  Bruneti^re, 
Questions  Actuelles,  51  ff.,  62,  74-75,  404-5. 

'  LXXIII,  701 :  "The  Dead  Language  Superstition,"  a  diatribe  called 
forth  by  Mill's  "Inaugural."  See  in  like  strain  Mach,  Open  Court, 
November  22,  1894;  Bierbower,  "Passing  of  the  Linguist,"  N.E.  Maga- 
zine, U.S.  36,  246  ff.  But  for  a  curious  reversion  to  type  see  in  Popular 
Science  Monthly  (1910),  p.  554,  the  article  on  "Classics  and  the  College 
Course,"  by  Professor  .John  P.  Stevenson.  Profe.ssor  Stevenson  thinks 
that  the  Kalevala  would  perhaps  prove  superior  to  the  Iliad  if  translated 
by  a  Pope.  Dante  is,  in  his  opinion,  free  from  the  "grossness  which 
characterizes"  Homer.  Plato's  reputation,  he  tells  us,  is  due  to  the 
fact  "that  his  style  is  ponderous  enough  to  prevent  popularization  of 
his  works."  No  wonder  that,  holding  these  views,  Mr.  Stevenson  finds 
it  difficult  "to  write  meekly  respecting  the  ceaseless  chatter  alwut 
culture."     See  Professor  H.  H.  Yeames  in  the  Nation,  March  2,  191 ) . 


306  Humanistic  Studies 

fessor  James  says:  "Round  your  obstacle  flows  the  water 
and  gets  there  all  the  same."^  The  majority  still  believe 
that  modern  civilization  can  find  not  only  entertainment 
but  also  all  the  instruction  and  all  the  culture  which  it 
requires  in  the  contemplation  of  moving  pictures  of  itself 
whether  in  the  five-cent  theater  or  the  ten-cent  magazine 
or  the  one-cent  newspaper.  But  among  the  thoughtful 
there  is  a  reaction  in  our  favor.  They  may  not  accept 
our  estimates  of  the  transcendental  worth  of  the  classic 
literatures  or  the  unique  discipline  of  classical  studies. 
But  they  have  lost  forever  the  illusion  that  the  mere 
suppression  of  Greek  and  Latin  will  bring  in  the  educa- 
tional millennium.-  They  are  observing  with  mixed 
feelings  a  Greekless  generation  of  graduates  and  wonder- 
ing what  a  Latinless  generation  will  be  like.  They  admit 
with  some  natural  reserves  the  breakdown  of  the  elective 
system.^  They  recognize  that  a  real  education  must  be 
based  on  a  serious,  consecutive,  progressive  study  of  some- 
thing definite,  teachable,  and  hard.*     And  while  they  may 

1  For  an  effective  answer  to  this  fatalistic  vox  pojmli  vox  Dei  argu- 
ment, see  Zielinski,  Our  Debt  to  Antiquity  (Eng.  trans.,  E.  P.  Dutton), 
3-8;  cf.  Lowell,  "Harvard  Anniversary  Address,"  Works,  VI,  162:  "I 
have  seen  several  spirits  of  the  age  in  my  time,"  etc.  Paulsen  (II,  370) 
says  that  in  1770  Kant  would  never  have  foreseen  that  in  1820  Greek 
would  lead  science  in  the  schools.  Yet  he  himself  ventures  the  predic- 
tion that  a  third  renaissance  of  classics  will  never  come  (pp.  634-35). 

2  "Harking  Back  to  the  Classics,"  Atlantic  Mo.,  CI  (1908),  482; 
L.  R.  Briggs,  "Some  Old-fashioned  Doubts  about  New-fashioned 
Education,"  Atlantic  Mo.,  LXXXVI,  463;  Williams,  supra,  228, 
229;  Gayley,  Idols  of  Education;  Barrett  Wendell,  The  Mystery  of 
Education:  see  Bruneti^re,  op.  cit.,  399-400.  Mr.  Wells,  however, 
seems  to  think  that  "to  create  a  new  liberal  education"  and  to  "cut  the 
umbilicus  of  the  classical  languages  for  good  and  all"  are  synonymous 
expressions. 

» Already  Lowell,  op.  cit.,  VI,  161;  cf.  Shorey,  "Discipline  in  Edu- 
cation," Bookman,  March,  1906.  See  the  entire  recent  literature  of 
dissatisfaction  with  the  colleges. 

*  Huxley,  op.  cit.,  414;  cf.  already  the  admirable  words  of  De  Morgan 
in  Youmans,  The  Culture  Demanded  by  Modern  Life,  442. 


The  New  Education  307 

not  agree  with  us  that  no  good  substitutes  for  Greek  and 
Latin  and  the  exact  sciences  can  be  found,  they  are  not 
quite  so  certain  as  they  were  that  sociology,  household 
administration,  modern  English  fiction,  short  stories  as 
a  mode  of  thinking,  and  modern  French  and  German 
comedies  are  "equally  as  good."  Thirty  or  fifty  years 
ago  they  could  contrast  with  our  ideal  the  actual  results 
of  that  classical  training  for  which  we  claimed  so  much.^ 
It  is  now  our  turn  to  challenge  the  results  of  the  new 
system. 2 

Addressing  myself  to  a  generation  thus  chastened  in 
spirit  and  exercised  in  the  dialectics  of  educational  con- 
troversy, I  need  not  do  more  than  enumerate  some  of  the 
hoary  fallacies  and  irrelevancies  which  it  was  once  neces- 
sary to  refute  in  detail.  I  may  take  it  for  granted  that 
we  must  compare  either  ideals  with  ideals  or  actualities 
with  actualities;  that  from  the  standpoint  of  the  ideal 
all  subjects  are  badly  taught,  imperfectly  learned,  and 
quickly  forgotten;^  that  the  classics  are,  on  the  whole, 
among  the  better-taught  subjects,"*  and  that  middle-aged 
business  men  who  complain  that  they  cannot  read  Greek 
and  Latin  for  pleasure  would  not  distinguish  themselves 
if   examined   on   mediaeval   history,    conic   sections,   old 

»  See  Contemp.  Rev.,  XXXV,  833. 

'  Paulsen  in  Educ.  Rev.,  XXXIII,  39,  says  (of  classics)  that  we 
must  consider  what  the  average  graduate  gets,  not  ideals.  Well,  what 
has  the  average  graduate  been  getting  from  the  "bargain-counter, 
sample  room,  d  la  carle"  system  of  the  past  two  decades? 

'  Cf.  Barrett  Wendell,  The  Mystery  of  Education,  143.  On  the  at- 
tempt to  limit  education  to  what  all  "educated"  men  remember  cf. 
Zielinski,  p.  27. 

*Ci.AndoverRev.,y,'So.2  (1884),  83;  Huxley,  op.  cit.,  153;  I'ro- 
fessor  Alexander  Smith,  in  Science,  XXX,  457-66:  "Every  conclusion  is 
tested  and  every  element  in  problem-solving  by  the  scientific  method  is 

covered The  method  is  simple,  yet  of  unquestionable  eflicicncy. 

A  method  so  simple  and  certain  has  not  yet  been  devised  for  history, 
literature,  political  economy,  or  chemistry." 


308  HuMA>fisTic  Studies 

French,  organic  chemistry,  or  whatever  else  they  happened 
to  elect  in  college.  As  CJeorge  Eliot  says,  "the  depth  of 
middle-aged  gentlemen's  ignorance  will  never  be  known 
for  want  of  public  examinations  in  this  branch."  It  is 
known  in  the  case  of  the  classics  only  because  they  regret 
that  they  have  lost  them  and  so  betray  themselves. 

Similarly  we  may  assume  a  general  recognition  of  the 
distinction  between  the  higher  and  the  lower  sense  of 
"practical,"'  of  the  fact  that  the  most  practical  of  studies 
are  useful  only  to  those  who  are  to  use  them,^  and  of  the 
repeated  testimony  of  business  and  technical  men  that  the 
actual  knowledge  gained  in  preparatory  college  courses 
in  their  subjects  is  of  little  value. ^ 

Again,  everybody  except  President  Stanley  Hall  is  now 
aware  that  the  phrase  "dead  language"  is  not  an  argu- 
ment but  a  question-begging  epithet  or  a  foolish,  outworn 
metaphor."* 

'  Cf.  Cambridge  Essays  (1855),  291;  W.  F.  Allen,  Memorial  Volume, 
129,  "Practical  Education";  Forman,  op.  cit.,  7-9;  Clapp,  Overland, 
XXVIII,  94. 

2  Huxley,  Science  and  Ed.,  316-21,  rejects  histology,  comparative 
anatomy,  and  materia  medica  as  of  no  practical  use  to  the  physician. 
Cf.  Brunetifere,  op.  cit.,  401;  Jacob  Bigelow,  "Remarks  on  Classical  and 
Utilitarian  Studies,"  1867,  with  the  answer  in  No.  Am.  Rev.,  CIV,  610. 

3  Loeb,  supra,  216,  "But  thirteen  years'  experience  in  very  active 
affairs  taught  me  that  the  time  spent  at  Harvard  studying  history  of 
finance  ....  might  as  well  have  been  devoted  to  the  classics  for  all 
the  practical  value  I  got."  "Ou  sont  aujourd'hui  la  physique,  la  chimie, 
la  physiologie  d'il  y  a  trente  ans  seulement,  et  qu'en  connaissons-nous 
pour  les  avoir  etudiees  au  college,  et  depuis  oubli6es?" — Bruneti^re, 
op.  cit.,  94. 

*  a.  Fouillee,  125,  on  Raoul  Frary's  "Culture  of  Dead  Wood." 
"A  dead  language  is  the  dead  sea  of  thought." — Pop.  Sci.  Mo.,  XVII, 
148.  Cf.  in  Butler's  Erewhon,  the  satire  on  "Colleges  of  Unreason 
given  over  to  the  study  of  the  Hypothetical  Language";  the  elaboration 
of  the  same  old  jest  in  another  form  by  Professor  Scott,  Ed.,  XVI,  360, 
and  Spencer's  constant  recourse  to  the  argument. 

For  the  retort  crushing  on  the  "dead  languages"  argument,  cf.  the 


The  New  Education  309 

Lastly,  the  right  use  and  Hmits  of  translations  are  no 
longer  likely  to  be  misunderstood.  Few  will  now  be 
misled  either  by  Labouchere's  statement  that  Bohn's 
translation  had  shown  up  the  classics,  or  Emerson's  saying 
that  he  would  as  soon  swim  when  there  was  a  bridge  as 
resort  to  the  original  in  place  of  a  translation;  or  Pro- 
fessor Moulton's  argument  that  translations  are  as  good 
as  the  originals  for  the  teacher  of  "general"  literature. 
And  though  we  sometimes  meet  the  fallacy  that  posed 
Gibbon's  aunt,  the  argument  that  the  student's  own 
version  is  inferior  to  the  printed  translations  of  great 
scholars  which  he  might  use  instead,  it  is  merely  as 
Gibbon  says  "a  silly  sophism  which  could  not  easily  be 
confuted  by  a  person  ignorant  of  any  language  but  her 
own."  There  is  no  opposition  between  the  use  of  trans- 
lations and  the  study  of  the  original.  On  the  contrary, 
even  a  little  acquaintance  with  the  original  adds  im- 
mensely to  their  usefulness.  They  are  tools  which  are 
best  employed  by  those  who  have  some  insight  into  the 
method  of  their  construction.^  For  some  purposes  they 
may  be  almost  as  good  as  the  originals.  But  among  the 
purposes  for  which  they  are  not  so  good  are  classroom 
discipHne,  the  development  of  the  critical  intelligence 
and  the  habit  of  exactness,  and  the  maintenance  of  high 

eloquent  words  of  D'Arcy  W.  Thompson  in  Day  Dreams  of  a  School- 
master; Lowell,  op.  cit.,  VI,  165;  "If  their  language  is  dead,  yet  the 
literature  it  enshrines  is  rammed  with  life  as  perhaps  no  other  .... 
ever  was  or  will  be." — Bryce,  supra,  210;  Postgate's  Liverpool 
Inaugural  Lecture  on  "Dead  Language  and  Dead  Languages," 
1-10;  ibid.,  12;  85  per  cent  of  "Ido"  is  intelligible  to  an  Englishman 
who  knows — Latin.  For  the  superior  educational  value  of  a  synthetic, 
classic,  or  a  "dead"  language,  cf.  Jebb,  op.  cit.,  621;  GilderHleeve,  op. 
cit.,  27-28;  Mill,  op.  cit.,  352-53;  Ziclinski,  op.  cit.,  3.3  ff.;  Laurie,  10; 
infra,  320-21. 

»  Cf.  President  Mackenzie,  supra,  166,  165,  162;    Zielinski,  up.  cit., 
112. 


310  Humanistic  Studies 

standards  of  national  taste  and  culture  in  the  educated 
classes.^ 

In  addition  to  all  this  controversial  and  negative  work, 
we  may  take  for  granted  the  conventional  positive  and 
constructive  arguments  for  classical  studies  elaborated 
by  a  long  line  of  able  apologists,  except  so  far  as  we  have 
occasion  to  summarize  or  refer  to  them  in  the  course  of 
this  review. - 

These  arguments  are  not  exclusive  but  cumulative. 
The  case  of  the  classics  does  not  rest  on  any  one  of  them 
and  is  not  impaired  by  the  exaggerated  importance  that 
mistaken  zeal  may  attribute  to  any  one.  Those  who  still 
harp  on  the  superiority  of  the  classics  as  discipline^  do 

1  Cf.  Gildersleeve,  op.  cit.,  20,  A.J.P.,  XXX,  353;  Mill,  op.  cit.,  350; 
Clapp,  op.  cit.,  100;  Zielinski,  op.  cit.,  85,  87;  T.  Herbert  Warren, 
Essays  on  Poets  and  Poetry,  III;  Wilamowitz,  Introduction  to  " Hippol- 
ytus":  Was  ist  Uebersetzenf;  Paul  Cauer,  Kunst  des  Uebersetzens,  4th 
ed.,  1909;  Diels,  Herakleitos:  "  Uebersetzen  ist  Spiel  oder,  wenn  man  will, 
Spielerei."  Professor  Moulton  feels  that  I  have  exaggerated  his  former 
statements.     See  now  his  "World  Literature,"  p.  5. 

2  See  supra,  303,  n.  4;  infra,  339-43.  For  some  earlier  apologies 
and  discussions  see  Sandys,  History  of  Classical  Scholarship,  II,  18,  51, 
71,  125,  130,  151,  171,  181,  209,  256;  also  the  writers  quoted  in  Taylor, 
Classical  Study:  Its  Value  Illustrated  (Andover,  1870).  Cf.  further 
W.  G.  C.  in  Cambridge  Essays  (1855),  282;  Essays  on  a  Liberal  Education 
(1867);  Arnold  in  Higher  Schools  in  Germany,  and  A  French  Eton;  Field, 
Lyttleton,  and  Rendall  in  Essays  on  Education  by  members  of  the  XIII 
(London,  1891);  Educ.  Rev.,  IX,  335:  Postgate,  "Are  the  Classics  to 
Go  ?  "  Fortnightly,  LXXVIII,  866  ff. ;  West,  "  Must  the  Classics  Go  ?  " 
No.  Am.  Rev.,  CXXXVIII,  151 ;  Kelsey,  "Position  of  Latin  and  Greek  in 
American  Education,"  Educ.  Rev.,  XXXIII,  162  (reprinted  in  this  volume) ; 
Clapp,  Overland,  XXVIII,  93  ff. ;  T.  Rice  Holmes,  "The  Crusade  against 
the  Classics,"  National  Rev.,  XLII,  97  ff. ;  Freeman  in  Macmillan,  LXIII, 
321  ff.;  Andrew  Lang  in  Living  Age,  CCXLV,  765  ff.;  J.  C.  Collins,  Fort- 
nightly, LXXXIII,  260  ff.;  T.  E.  Page,  Educ.  Rev.,  XXXIV,  144;  Manatt, 
N.Y.  Evening  Post,  August  18,  1906;  Anatole  France,  "Pour  le  Latin," 
Vie  litteraire,  I,  281;  Bruneti^re,  "La  question  du  Latin,"  Revue  des 
deux  mondes,  December  15,  1885. 

'E.g.,  Professor  Sidney  G.  Ashmore,  The  Classics  and  Modern 
Training,  chap.  i.     See  supra,  306,  nn.  2,  3. 


The  New  Education  311 

not  therefore  ''tacitly  acknowledge  themselves  beaten  on 
the  point  of  their  intrinsic  value  "^  and  those  who  prefer 
to  emphasize  the  "necessity  of  the  ancient  classics" 
for  the  understanding  of  modern  life  and  letters^  may  still 
believe  that  high-school  Latin  is  the  best  instrument  of 
discipline  available  in  secondary  education.^ 

The  March  number  of  the  Classical  Journal  tabulates 
the  aims  of  classical  study  as  stated  by  teachers  in  response 
to  a  questionnaire.  Thirty  teachers  aim  at  mental  train- 
ing, 29  at  literary  appreciation,  26  at  power  of  expression, 
26  at  the  relation  of  the  ancients  to  us,  26  at  ability  to 
read,  15  at  general  linguistic  training,  8  at  grammar,  6  at 
acquaintance  with  Greek  and  Latin  literature.  Obvi- 
ously there  is  nothing  incompatible  in  these  aims.  It  is 
a  question  of  emphasis,  the  needs  of  the  class,  the  ability, 
training,  and  tastes  of  the  teacher.  A  faddist  may  ride 
his  hobby  to  death,  whether  it  be  optatives,  or  lantern 
slides,  or  parallel  passages  from  the  poets.  But,  in  return, 
the  good  teacher  will  almost  in  the  same  breath  translate 
a  great  poetic  sentence,  bring  out  its  relations  to  the  whole 
of  which  it  is  a  part,  make  its  musical  rhythm  felt  by 
appropriate  declamation,  explain  a  historical  or  an  anti- 
quarian allusion,  call  attention  to  a  dialectic  form,  put 
a  question  about  a  peculiar  use  of  the  optative,  compare 
the  imagery  with  similar  figures  of  speech  in  ancient  and 
modern  poetry,  and  use  the  whole  as  a  text  for  a  little 
discourse  on  the  difference  {)etween  the  classical  and  the 
modern  or  romantic  spirit;  so  that  you  shall  not  know 
whether  he  is  teaching  science  or  art,  language  or  litera- 

1  Gildersleeve,  op.  cil.,  1.5. 

2  Gildersleeve,  South.  Quart.,  XXVI,  145. 

'  Cf.  Bennett  and  Bristol,  The  Tcnching  of  Latin  and  Greek,  chap.  1, 
and  Bristol  in  Educ.  Rev.,  XXXVII,  243- .51. 


312  Humanistic  Studies 

ture,  grammar,  rhetoric,  psychology,  or  sociology,  because 
he  is  really  teaching  the  elements  and  indispensable  pre- 
requisites of  all. 

Similarly  of  the  diverse  considerations  urged  by  former 
apologists  and  the  contributors  to  these  symposia.  The 
case  of  the  classics  rests  on  no  one  taken  singly  but  on 
their  conjoint  force,  and  it  is  not  really  weakened  by  the 
disproportionate  stress  sometimes  laid  on  the  weaker 
arguments.  The  illumination  of  scientific  terminology, 
for  example,  is  a  minor  and  secondary  utility  of  a  little 
knowledge  of  Greek  and  Latin  on  which  the  biologist  or 
physician  is  especially  apt,  perhaps  over  much,  to  insist. 
That  is  his  contribution.  He  does  not  mean  to  rest  the 
case  on  that.  He  is  not  answered  by  the  argument  that 
"ten  or  twelve  years"  of  study  is  too  big  a  price  to  pay 
for  this  result  and  that  terminology  can  be  learned  from 
glossaries.  For  a  very  slight  knowledge  of  the  languages 
makes  an  immense  difference  in  the  intelligence  with  which 
the  dictionary  or  the  glossary  of  scientific  terms  is  consulted 
and  the  vividness  with  which  its  statements  are  realized. 
One  or  two  years  will  yield  a  good  deal  of  that  particular 
utility,  and  the  question  for  the  teacher  of  science  or 
medicine  is  whether  any  other  nonprofessional  college 
study  is  likely  to  be  more  "useful"  to  his  students.^  So 
in  arguing  that  the  classics  give  the  engineer  a  power  of 
expression  which  he  requires  for  use  as  well  as  for  orna- 
ment, Professor  Sadler^  is  not  committing  himself  or  us 
to  the  proposition  that  none  but  classicists  write  well  and 
all  classicists  do.  He  simply  means  what  all  experience 
proves,  that  the  study  of  the  classics  is  on  the  whole  an 

I  See  Dr.  Vaughan,  supra,  86-87,  90. 
^  Supra,  104-5,  115-16. 


The  New  Education  313 

excellent  training  in  expression/  perhaps  a  better  one  than 
the  unpremeditated  effusions  of  ''daily  themes, "^  and  that 
discipHne  in  the  power  of  exact  and  lucid  expression  is  a 
utility  for  the  engineer.^  Again,  Mr.  Kelsey  would  be  the 
last  to  rest  the  case  for  the  classics  on  the  fact  that  the 
wider  secondary  study  of  Greek  would  leave  the  door  of 
choice  for  the  profession  of  the  ministry  open  to  a  large 
number  of  desirable  candidates  who  now  find  too  late 
that  they  lack  the  indispensable  preparation.^  But  it 
is  a  real  if  minor  consideration  to  be  counted  in  the  sum. 

All  of  these  contributions  from  the  professions  take  for 
granted  the  general  discipline  and  cultural  values  of  the 
classics,  and  presuppose  the  fact  pointed  out  by  Mr. 
Loeb  and  others,  that  the  direct  business  and  technical 
utilitarian  value  of  the  so-called  practical  college  courses 
is  very  sHght.  On  this  assumption,  they  supplement  the 
ideal  values  of  the  classics  by  showing  that,  in  the  jargon 
of  modern  pedagogy,  they  also  possess  "adjustment 
values"  for  other  professions  than  theology  and  literature. 

One  consideration,  however,  which  constantly  recurs 
in  these  discussions  is  fundamental.  It  is  the  training 
which  the  classics  give  in  the  art  of  interpretation. 
Classicists  sometimes  claim  for  and  scientific  men  concede 
too  much  to  the  study  of  the  classics  as  a  means  of  develop- 

i  A  writer  in  Educ.  Rev.,  XXXVIII,  88-90,  argues  that  the  diflfer- 
ence  of  pronunciation  makes  Latin  useless  to  the  English  of  the  high- 
school  student. 

2  Cf.  Mr.  Barrett  Wendell's  sad  surmise  (The  Mystery  of  Education, 
175)  that  perhaps  the  reason  why  the  up-to-date  Harvard  student  doesn't 
write  like  Addison  is  that  Addison  "had  never  studied  English  composi- 
tion as  a  thing  apart."  But  Addison  had  studied  Latin  composition 
and  had  a  very  pretty  knack  of  turning  Latin  verses. 

»  Cf.  Outlook,  XCIII  (1907),  87. 

*  Supra,  186  ff. 


314  Humanistic  Studies 

ins  tli^'  powers  of  expression.'  They  underestimate  its 
value  as  a  (liscipline  of  the  intelHgence.-  They  appreciate 
its  stimulus  to  emotion.  They  fail  to  apprehend  its 
subtle  effect  in  blending  and  harmonizing  the  two — suffus- 
ing thought  with  feeling,  informing  feeling  with  thought. 

'  Huxley,  op.  cit.,  130. 

-  Bentley's  Dissertation  on  Phalaris,  the  type  and  model  of  philo- 
logical method,  has  been  aptly  styled  "a  relentless  syllogism."  No  one 
ean  compare  the  discourses  of  Renan  and  Pasteur  at  the  French  Academy 
or  the  Romanes  lectures  of  Jebb  (1899)  and  Professor  Lankester  (1904) 
without  feeling  that  the  superiority  of  the  trained  classical  philologian 
is  not  solely  or  mainly  "in  the  graces."  It  is  in  the  intellectual  qualities 
of  subtlety,  wit,  sanity,  breadth,  coherence,  and  closeness  of  cogent 
dialectic  that  his  advantage  is  most  conspicuous.  As  we  are  speaking 
of  "disciplinary  values"  it  would  be  beside  the  mark  to  allege  what 
Renan  and  Jebb  would  be  the  first  to  admit,  that  Pasteur's  work  was 
of  greater  service  to  mankind  than  theirs.  A  similar  moral  may  be 
drawn  from  the  pamphlet  of  Dr.  Wilhelm  Ostwald,  Wider  das  Schule- 
land  cin  Nothruf,  Leipzig,  1909.  From  inferior  men,  whether  classicists 
or  students  of  science,  we  expect  inferior  dialectic.  But  Dr.  Ostwald 
is,  I  understand,  in  his  own  field  a  firstrate  man.  And  both  his  logic 
and  his  rhetoric  are  of  a  quality  impossible  to  a  firstrate  classicist.  I  do 
not  know  how  far  he  exaggerates  the  evils  of  over-strenuous  discipline, 
too  much  religious  instruction,  excessive  language-study,  and  severe 
final  examinations  in  Germany.  But  as  our  dangers  all  lie  in  the  oppo- 
site direction,  his  diatribes  have  no  lessons  for  us.  As  a  whole,  it  is 
rhetoric  rather  than  argument.  He  neglects  the  special  considerations 
and  ignores  all  the  distinctions  by  which  reasoning  is  divided  from 
declamation.  Experiment  is  with  him  a  catchword  and  a  shibboleth, 
but  his  definite  suggestions  are  limited  to  the  proposal  that  all  teachers 
should  do  as  they  please,  which  is  anarchy,  and  that  all  teaching  should 
be  personal  and  individual  in  its  dealing  with  the  student,  which  would 
require  an  army  of  teachers  that  no  community  could  pay  for.  He  does 
not  distinguish  different  grades  of  society,  or  different  aims  in  education. 
He  talks  of  basing  education  upon  the  ideals  of  the  ancients,  a  thing 
which  nobody  proposes,  and  does  not  distinguish  in  so  doing  between 
the  standards  of  ordinary  life  and  those  of  the  supreme  writers  used  in 
classical  study.  He  might  as  well  talk  of  basing  education  on  the 
modern  ideal  as  revealed  in  the  newspaper  and  in  Chicago  politics.  His 
remark  that  the  average  professor  or  secondary  teacher  of  classics  is 
not  the  highest  product  of  modern  civilization  would  be  relevant  only 
if  he  were  prepared  to  maintain  that  the  average  secondary  teacher  of 
chemistry  is.  His  fallacy  about  translations  has  been  answered  a 
hundred   times.     His  statement   that   the  study  of  language  is  not  a 


The  New  Educatiox  315 

In  controversy  Huxley  and  Tyndall  were  fontl  of  pointing 
out  that  the  leaders  of  science  expressed  themselves 
with  rather  more  vigor,  point,  and  precision  than  the 
ordinary  classicist.  And  their  own  vivid  and  fluent 
eloquence  drove  the  argument  home.  In  general,  how- 
ever, men  of  science  are  only  too  ready  to  concede  with 
the  irony  which  apes  humility  that  their  training  has  not 
supplied  the  graces  and  literary  refinements  that  are 
supposed  to  qualify  a  man  to  shine  after  dinner  or  to  make 
a  good  appearance  on  the  platform.  But  the  gifts  of 
eloquence  and  fluency  are  sparks  of  natural  endowment 
which  science  perhaps  quite  as  often  as  philology  fans  into 
flame. ^  Scientific  men  may  make  haste  to  forget  their 
Latin  as  Latin.  But  the  mere  classicist  observes  with 
admiring  despair  their  mastery  of  the  polj^sy liable  Latin- 
ized vocabulary  of  English.  Where  he  says  ''if  so"  they 
say  "in  the  contemplated  eventuality."  We  must  abate 
our  claim  that  only  the  classics  make  men  eloquent  and 
emphatic  in  the  expression  of  their  own  thoughts. 

But  it  is  impossible  to  claim  too  much  for  them  as  a 
discipline  in  the  all-important  art  of  interpreting  the 
expressed  thought  of  others.  There  is  no  other  exercise 
available  for  educational  purposes  that  can  compare  in 

discipline  of  the  mind  would  put  him  out  of  court  as  a  psychologist,  were 
it  not  that  his  ideal  of  language-study  appears  to  be  the  fluency  of  a 
polyglot  waiter.  His  statement  that  no  serious  reason  can  be  given 
for  the  study  of  Latin  merely  shows  that  he  is  totally  lacking  in  the 
historic  sense.  In  general,  most  of  his  arguments  against  the  classics 
apply  equally  to  any  literary,  linguistic,  or  historic  culture  whose  roots 
are  more  than  twenty  or  thirty  years  deep,  and  so  prove  too  much  for 
most  civilized  men.  His  peroration  is  mere  buncombe.  Real  eloquence 
must  be  based  on  serious  thought,  and  nobody  can  take  seriously  his 
comparison  of  the  war  of  liberation  against  Napoleon  with  the  war 
which  he  proposes  to  wage  against  the  humanistic  gynuiasium. 

1  On  the  bad  style  of  classicists  cf.  Pop.  Sci.  Mo.,  I,  707;  (lildersloovc, 
op.  cit.,  49;   Spencer,  Study  of  Sociology,  207. 


31(3  Humanistic  Studies 

this  respect  with  the  daily  graduated  critical  classroom 
translation  and  interpretation  of  classical  texts.'  The 
instinctively  sane  judgment  of  intended  meanings,  the 
analytic  power  of  rational  interpretation — these,  natural 
gifts  being  equal,  are  the  distinctive  marks  of  the  student 
of  classics,  in  varying  degrees,  from  the  secondary-school 
Latinist,  who  at  least  has  some  inkling  of  the  general 
implicit  logic  and  structure  of  language,  to  the  collegian 
who  has  been  exercised  in  the  equivocations  of  idiom  and 
synonym,  and  the  finished  master  who  can  weigh  all  the 
nice  considerations  that  determine  the  precise  shade  of 
meaning  or  tone  of  feeling  in  a  speech  in  Thucydides,  a 
lyric  of  Aeschylus,  a  half-jesting,  half-serious  argument  in 
Plato.  Information,  knowledge,  culture,  originality,  elo- 
quence, genius  may  exist  without  a  classical  training; 
the  critical  sense  and  a  sound  feeling  for  the  relativity  of 
meaning  rarely  if  ever.  I  have  never  met  in  private  life 
or  encountered  in  literature  a  thinker  wholly  disdainful 
of  the  discipline  of  the  classics  who  did  not  betray  his 
deficiency  in  this  respect.  I  say  in  all  seriousness  that 
what  chiefly  surprises  a  well-trained  classicist  in  the  con- 
troversial and  popular  writings  of  scientific  men,  especially 
in  the  case  of  the  pseudo-  or  demi-sciences,~  is  not  any 
awkwardness  of  style  or  defect  in  ''culture,"  but  the 
quality  of  the  dialectic  and  logic,  the  irrelevancies,  the 

1  The  argument  of  Webster  {Forum,  XXVIII,  459  ff.)  that  the  study 
of  a  language  makes  almost  no  demands  upon  the  reasoning  powers 
refutes  itself;   cf.  Jebb,  op.  cit.,  558;   Laurie,  Lectures  on  Languages  and 

Linguistic  Method,  9-10;    Fouillee,  102-3. 

• 

2  Illustrations  of  this  point  are  too  numerous  to  quote  here,  but  the 
repeated  misapprehensions  of  Plato's  plainest  meanings  in  Education  as 
Adjustment,  19,  62,  63,  90,  by  Mr.  M.  V.  O'Shea,  professor  of  the 
"science"  and  art  of  education  in  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  are  typ- 
ical. If  such  are  the  standards  of  accuracy  and  criticism  of  the  pro- 
fessor of  the  science,  what  will  be  those  of  the  novices? 


The  New  Education  317 

elaborations  of  metaphors  from  illustrations  into  argu- 
ments/ the  disproportionate  emphasis  upon  trifles  and 
truisms,^  the  ignoring  of  the  issue,^  the  naive  dependence 
on  authority,^  the  outbursts  of  quaint  unction  and  ornate 

'Huxley,  Science  and  Education,  81  ff.;  Spencer,  passim;  Dr. 
George  E.  Dawson,  "Parasitic  Culture,"  Pop.  Sci.  Mo.,  September, 
1910. 

2  Cf.  in  Culture  Demanded  by  Modern  Life  Paget's  page  on  the 
"certainty  that  continual  or  irregular  feeding  is  contrary  to  the  economy 
of  the  human  stomach." 

'E.g.,  Huxley's  extension  of  "nature"  to  include  "men  and  their 
ways,"  and  "the  fashioning  of  the  affections  and  of  the  will,"  Science 
and  Education,  83. 

*  Typical  examples  are  the  use  that  they  make  as  ultimate  authorities 
of  Grote's  Plato,  Lewis'  Biographical  History  of  Philosophy,  Lange's 
History  of  Materialism,  and  Draper's  Intellectual  Development  of  Europe. 
Cf.  Tyndall,  Belfast  Address,  "And  I  have  entire  confidence  in  Dr. 
Draper."  Huxley  on  the  study  of  zoology:  "What  books  shall  I  read  ? 
None;  write  your  notes  out;  come  to  me  for  the  exi:)lanation  of  anything 
that  you  cannot  understand."  Neither  Youmans  nor  Herbert  Spencer 
could  ever  be  brought  to  admit  the  gross  error  into  which  Spencer  was 
led  {Data  of  Ethics,  ^  19),  by  misinterpreting  Bohn's  mistranslation  of 
Plato's  Republic,  339D.  For  another  example,  cf.  Jhering  ap.  Zielinski, 
111.  Huxley's  contrast  between  history  and  laboratory  science  (p.  126) 
is  fallacious.  He  fails  to  see  that  the  student  of  science  innocently 
transfers  to  literature,  history,  and  language  his  habit  of  accepting  on 
faith  all  experimental  results  outside  of  his  particular  specialty,  while 
the  student  of  classical  philology  acquires  the  habit  of  testing  by  the 
original  evidence  every  statement  that  he  hears  from  his  teacher  or  reads 
in  his  textbooks.  Cf.  Smith,  supra,  307,  n.  4;  Fouill6e  op.  cit.,  62-63, 
109. 

Those  who  repeat  (e.g.,  Webster,  Forum,  XXVII,  453)  after  Spencer 
{Education,  79)  that  classical  training  establishes  the  habit  of  blind  sub- 
mission to  the  authority  of  grammar,  lexicon,  or  teacher  simply  do  not 
know  what  goes  on  in  a  good  classroom.  See  Zielinski,  op.  cit.,  90-92. 
Cf.  the  noble  passage  in  Mill,  op.  cit.,  IV,  355,  on  the  spirit  of  inquiry  in 
Plato  and  Aristotle  which  Huxley  {op.  cit.,  211),  transfers  verbatim  to 
science,  ignoring  the  all-important  qualification,  "on  those  subjects 
which  remain  matters  of  controversy  from  the  difficulty  or  impossibility 
of  bringing  them  to  an  experimental  test."  Cf.  Jebb,  appendix  to 
Sophocles  O.T.,  219.  "It  is  among  the  advantages  and  the  pleasures 
of  classical  study  that  it  gives  scope  for  such  discussions  as  this  passage 
{O.T.,  44-45)  has  evoked." 


318  Humanistic  Studies 

rhetoric,^  the  constant  liability  to  stumble  like  a  child, 
or  quibble  like  a  sophist,-  with  regard  to  the  fair  presump- 
tive meaning  of  alien,  divergent,  or  hostile  utterances.^ 
There  is  for  them  no  intermediate  between  the  rigid, 
unequivocal  scientific  formula  and  mere  rhetoric  or 
sophistry,  because  they  have  never  been  trained  to  the 
apprehension  of  all  recorded  speech  as  a  text  whose  full 
meaning  can  be  ascertained  only  by  a  critical,  historical, 
and  philological  interpretation  of  the  context.  The  way 
in  which  the  classics  provide  us  with  this  training  can  be 
fully  appreciated  only  through  experience.^  I  have  at- 
tempted a  description  elsewhere  in  the  School  Review,^ 
and  it  has  often  been  set  forth  by  others,  and  most  admira- 
bl}'  by  the  representatives  of  the  law  in  these  symposia.^ 
The  law  itself  is  the  only  discipline  comparable  to  the 
classics  in  this  regard."     But  while  more  severe,  perhaps, 

'  "The  suction  pump  is  but  an  imitation  of  the  first  act  of  every 
new-born  infant,  nor  do  I  think  it  calculated  to  lessen  that  infant's 
reverence  ....  when  his  riper  experience  shows  him  that  the 
atmosphere  was  his  helper  in  extracting  the  first  draught  from  his 
mother's  bosom"  (Tyndall,  on  the  Study  of  Physics). 

'  Paget,  op.  cit.,  p.  183:  "The  student  of  nature's  purposes  should 
surely  be  averse  from  leading  a  purposeless  existence." 

3  Spencer,  passim;  Huxley,  op.  cit.,  144:  "If  their  common  outfit 
draws  nothing  from  the  stores  of  physical  science."  Both  Mill  and 
Arnold  insist  on  acquaintance  with  the  results  of  science.  Cf.  too 
Huxley's  substitution  of  Middle  Ages  for  Renaissance  (ibid.,  149-50) 
and  his  consequent  contradiction  of  his  own  admission  on  p.  209,  "that 
the  study  of  classical  literature  familiarized  men  with  ideas  of  the  order 
of  nature." 

«  Zielinski,  op.  cit.,  31  ff.  '  V,  225-29. 

•  Cf.  Starr  on  the  discipline  of  the  judgment  and  training  in  the 
interpretation  of  texts,  supra,  127,  128,  124;  Evans,  supra,  132;  Foster, 
supra,  219  ff. 

'  Whewell  adds  that  it  is  like  mathematics,  essentially  deductive. 
Without  committing  ourselves  to  the  "inductive  method  of  learning 
languages"  we  may  say  that  the  interpretation  of  a  classic  text  is  often 
an  excellent  exercise  in  "inductive-observant"  thinking. 


The  New  Education  319 

and  strictly  intellectual  it  is  narrower  in  its  range^  and 
does  not  include  the  union  of  feeling  and  intelligence 
which  makes  the  study  of  the  classics  an  incomparable 
method  of  general  education.  For  this  reason,  though 
the  law  would  be  the  best  available  substitute  for  the 
discipline  of  the  classics,  thoughtful  lawyers  would  be  the 
last  to  advocate  the  substitution. 

But  it  is  time  to  turn  from  these  special  considerations 
to  a  broader  view  of  the  whole  subject.  Classical  educa- 
tion is  not  an  academic  superstition,  an  irrational  survival 
of  the  Renaissance.-  It  is  a  universal  phenomenon  of 
civilization.  Higher  non-vocational  education  has  always 
been  largely  hterary  and  linguistic,  and  it  has  always 
been  based  on  a  literature  distinguished  from  the  ephem- 
eral productivity  of  the  hour  as  classic.  It  was  so  at 
Rome,  in  China,  in  Hindustan,  and  among  the  Arabs. 
The  Greeks,  whose  supreme  originality  makes  them  an 
exception  to  every  rule,  are  only  an  apparent  exception  to 
this — they  studied  Homer^  and  their  own  older  classics 
to  form,  not  inform,  their  minds.'*  This  universal  tend- 
ency is  only  in  part  explained  by  the  religious  or  super- 
stitious reverence  for  sacred  texts.  It  is  in  the  main  due 
to  an  instinctive  perception  of  the  principles  on  which  the 
case  for  the  classics  still  rests.  The  education  of  those 
who  can  afford  time  for  non-vocational  study  is  not  in 
the  narrower  or  more  immediate  sense  of  the  words  a 

1  Hutchins,  supra,  138,  142-43. 

'  For  this  commonplace  see  infra,  323,  n.  4. 

'  Cf .  Breal,  553:  "On  oublie  qu'ils  avaient  leur  antiquite  dans 
r epopee." 

<  Cf.  Bain,  Contemp.  Rev.,  XXXV,  837:  "The  fact  that  the  Greeks 
were  not  acquainted  with  any  language  but  their  own  ....  I  have 
never  known  any  attempt  to  parry  this  thrust." 


320  Humanistic  Studies 

''preparation  for  life"^  but,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
individual,  a  development  of  the  faculties;  from  the  point 
of  view  of  society,  the  transmission  of  a  cultural,  social, 
moral  tradition.^  It  must  be  a  broad  discipline  of  the 
intellectual  powers  that  shall  at  the  same  time  attune  the 
aesthetic  and  the  moral  feelings  to  a  certain  key.^  No 
study  but  that  of  language  and  literature  can  do  this,  and 
it  is  best  done  through  an  older  and  more  synthetic  form 
of  language  and  a  literature  that  is,  in  relation  to  the 

1  For  such  tautologous  formulas  as  definitions  of  education  cf .  my 
"Discipline  in  Modern  Education,"  The  Bookman  (March,  1906),  94; 
to  the  list  there  given  add  "Adjustment,"  which  obviously  includes 
everything  and  therefore  anything.  The  "end  of  education,"  says 
Professor  M.  V.  O'Shea  {Education  as  Adjustment,  286),  is  "to  give  the  in- 
dividual mastery  of  the  world" — an  ambitious  ideal.  What  he  neglects 
to  prove  is  that  the  teacher  will  more  surely  confer  that  mastery  by  asking 
the  class  "how  many  buttons  there  are  on  a  waistcoat"  {ibid.,  253) 
than  by  asking  them  to  construe  Cicero.  Nothing  can  be  more  plausi- 
ble to  the  popular  mind  than  the  rhetorical  contrast  of  the  largeness 
and  complexity  of  "life"  with  the  narrow  pedantry  of  the  school.  The 
articles  now  [1910-11]  appearing  in  the  World's  Work  represent  a 
perpetually  recurrent  type,  and  the  clever  Mr.  Wells  is  sure  of 
his  effect  when  he  writes  in  The  New  Machiavelli  (p.  67):  "Here  all 
about  me  was  London  ....  a  vortex  of  gigantic  forces  ....  and 
my  school  not  only  offered  no  key  to  it,  but  had  practically  no  comment 
to  make  upon  it  at  all."  But  you  cannot  take  the  world  into  the 
classroom  except  as  a  distraction  from  the  business  in  hand,  and  though 
Mr.  Wells  may  hold  the  key  to  London,  he  would  hardly  claim  as  much 
for  the  teachers  who  are  and  must  remain  the  human  instrumentalities 
of  education.  They  cannot  deal  with  the  world  but  only  with  some 
aspect  or  interpretation  of  it  put  into  definite  teachable  form:  Pro- 
fessor O'Shea's  books  about  education,  for  example,  or  Mr.  Wells's 
sociological  romances,  or  Mr.  Bernard  Shaw's  views  of  marriage,  or  the 
Chicago  American.  And  this  at  once  brings  us  down  from  the  heights  of 
generalization  to  the  concrete  question  whether  these  things  are  better 
than  the  obsolete  classics.  Even  Mr.  Wells  is  not  quite  sure,  for  he 
adds  (69)  "yet  in  a  dim,  confused  way  I  think  he  [the  old  Latin  professor] 
was  making  out  a  case." 

2  See  Bruneti^re,  op.  cil.,  406,  and  the  admirable  work  of  Fouill^e, 
Education  from  a  National  Standpoint,  in  Appleton's  "International 
Education  Series,"  p.  54,  and  passim. 

'Arnold's  "relating  what  we  have  learnt  ....  to  the  sense  for 
conduct  and  the  sense  for  beauty." 


The  New  Education  321 

student  and  his  environment,  classic.^  This  is  the  mean- 
ing of  the  late  W.  T.  Harris'  somewhat  cryptic  HegeHsm 
that  self-alienation  is  necessary  to  self-knowledge.^  Or, 
to  put  it  more  concretely,  the  critical  interpretation  or 
translation  of  such  a  language  supplies  the  simplest  and 
most  effective  all-round  discipline  of  the  greatest  number 
of  faculties.  The  ideal  form  and  content  of  such  a 
literature  elevated  above  the  trivialities,  disengaged  from 
the  complexities,  disinterested  in  the  conflicts  of  contem- 
porary life^  awakens  the  aesthetic  and  literary  sense,* 
ennobles  and  refines  feeUng.^  And  the  very  definition 
of  classic  implies  that  it  is  the  source  and  chief  depository 
of  the  national  tradition  either  of  religion  or  culture  or 
both. 

For  modern  Europe  these  conditions  were  fulfilled 
by  the  study  of  the  classics  of  Greece  and  Rome  which 
the  Renaissance  established  in  the  face  of  a  scholasticism 
that  called  itself  science,^  and  which,  adapted  to  altered 
conditions,  we  have  still  to  defend  against  the  exclusive 
pretensions  of  sciences  that,  uninformed  by  the  temper 
of  humanism,  threaten  to  renew  the  spiritual  aridity  if 
not  the  intellectual  futility  of  scholasticism. 

'  "There  are  five  times  as  many  mental  processes  to  undertake  in 
translating  from  Latin  and  Greek  into  English  as  there  are  in  translating 
a  modern  language." — Lord  Goschen;  cf.  supra,  .308,  n.  4;  infra,  333, 
n.  4. 

2  "  Self-alienation  which  consists  in  projecting  one's  self  into  the 
idioms  of  a  dead  language,"  etc. — -P.  K.  Shipman,  Pop.  Sci.  Mo.,  XVII, 
145. 

3  Gladstone  ap.  Jebb,  570. 

*  Jebb,  526.  Cf.  the  definition  of  education  as  the  aesthetic  revela- 
tion of  the  world. 

'  "Much  lost  I,  something  stayed  behind, 
A  snatch  maybe  of  ancient  song; 
Some  breathing  of  a  deathless  mind. 

Some  love  of  truth,  some  hate  of  wrong." — lonica. 

•  Cf.  Univ.  of  III.  Studies,  III,  No.  VII,  p.  29. 


322  Humanistic  Studies 

The  debate  which  began  in  the  reaction  from  the 
Renaissance  and  found  its  first  notable  expression  in  the 
famous  "quarrel  of  the  ancients  and  moderns"  is  now  more 
than  two  hundred  years  old.^     New  arguments  are  hardly 

'  Not  to  speak  of  the  polemic  of  the  more  illiberal  Christian  fathers 
against  "pagan"  studies,  the  controversy  could  be  traced  back  to  the 
opposition  of  scholasticism  and  the  arts  in  the  mediaeval  universities; 
cf.  Univ.  of  III.  Studies,  III,  No.  VII,  pp.  19,  27  fT.  Or  we  could  begin 
in  full  Renaissance  with  the  humanist  Vives,  advocate  of  the  study  of 
the  vernacular;  with  Bacon,  who,  though  himself  widely  read  in  the 
classics  and  writing  in  Latin,  is  the  chief  source  of  the  rhetoric  of  the 
eighteenth  and  nineteenth-century  polemic  of  scientific  men  against  the 
classics;  or,  better  yet,  with  Descartes,  who  anticipates  by  two  hundred 
j'ears  the  type  of  Spencer  and  Youmans  and  President  Stanley  Hall. 
Cf.  in  Cousin,  X,  375,  his  funny  letter  to  Madame  Elizabeth  deploring 
Queen  Christina's  enthusiasm  for  Greek.  So  Spencer  more  in  sorrow 
than  in  anger  comments  (Autobiog.,  II,  183)  on  Mill's  Inaugural  which 
Youmans  quotes  not  quite  ingenuously  (Gildersleeve,  op.  cit.,  11).  It  is 
easy  to  cite  sporadic  denunciations  of  the  exclusive  study  of  the  classics 
and  satire  of  bad  teaching  from  the  writers  of  the  seventeenth  and  eight- 
eenth centuries.  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  himself  steeped  in  the  classics, 
incidentally  writes,  anticipating  Spencer,  in  the  style  of  Macaulay: 
"  'Tis  an  unjust  way  of  compute,  to  magnify  a  weak  head  for  some  Latin 
abilities  and  to  undervalue  a  solid  judgment,  because  he  knows  not  the 
genealogy  of  Hector."  Cf.  Rigault's  well-known  book;  Macaulay's 
" Essay  on  Sir  William  Temple " ;  Jebb's  Bentley;  Bruneti^re,  Epoques, 
220;  Rene  Doumie,  "La  manie  de  la  modernite,  Etudes  de  litt.  fran^aise, 
III,  1-23;  Sandys,  History  of  Classical  Scholarship,  II,  403  ff.  For  the 
eighteenth  century  in  France  with  its  strange  transition  from  dying 
pseudo-classicism  to  the  second  classical  renaissance,  see  the  excellent 
work  of  Bertrand,  Fin  du  classicisme,  and  for  Germany,  see  Paulsen, 
Geschichte  des  Gelehrten  Unterrichts,  II.  In  nineteenth-century  con- 
troversy the  chief  epochs  are  marked  by  (1)  Sydney  Smith's  "Too  Much 
Latin  and  Greek,"  Edinburgh  Univ.  Rev.  (1809) — mainly  an  attack  on 
Latin  verse,  etc.  Antiolassicists  quote  from  it  at  second  hand  "the  safe 
and  elegant  imbecility  of  classical  learning."  They  should  also  quote, 
"up  to  a  certain  point  we  would  educate  every  young  man  in  Latin  and 
Greek."  (2)  Macaulay,  "The  London  University,"  Edinburg  Univ.  Rev. 
(1826),  a  political  tract  against  the  Tory  opposition  in  Macaulay's  most 
extreme  rhetorical  style.  With  the  "  Essay  on  Bacon  "  it  has  served  as  a 
repertory  of  fallacies,  and  it  is  probably  a  chief  source  of  Spencer.  (3) 
Spencer's  Essay  on  Education  (1858-60),  mainly  an  elaboration  of  the  fal- 
lacy (anticipated  by  Plato,  Rep.,  438E)  that  knowledge  of  "useful  things" 
is  for  educational  purposes  necessarily  and  always  the  most  useful  knowl- 
edge.     To  this  we  may  relate  the  controversies  of  the  fifties  and  sixties  and 


The  New  Education  323 

discoverable  at  this  date.  At  the  most  we  may  endeavor 
to  weigh  the  old  ones  with  more  discretion,  adapt  them 
to  the  present  conditions,  and  throughout  to  insist  on  a 
vital  distinction  which  defines  the  issue  today.  I  refer 
to  the  distinction  between  past  adjustments  or  reductions 
of  exclusive  or  excessive  claims  of  classical  stucUes  and 
present  efforts  and  tendencies  to  abolish  them  altogether. 
Here,  as  often,  a  quantitative  distinction  becomes  qualita- 
tive, a  difference  of  degree  passes  into  a  difference  of  kind.^ 
The  truism  that  Greece  and  Rome  mean  less  for  us  than 
they  did  for  the  men  of  the  Renaissance  is  not  even  a 
presumption  that  they  count  for  little  or  nothing.^  Apart 
from  all  technical  considerations  of  curricula,  degrees, 
and  educational  machinery,  it  is  broadly  desirable  that 
classical  studies  should  continue  to  hold  a  place  in  higher 
education  fairly  proportionate  to  their  significance  for 
our  total  culture.  They  will  not  hold  that  place  if  the 
representatives  of  the  scientific  anfl  ''modern"  subjects 

their  prolongation  to  our  own  time.  See  the  various  papers  dating  from 
1854  on  in  Huxley's  Science  and  Education.  The  year  1867  marks  a  date 
with  Mill's  Inaugural  and  Youmans'  Culture  Demanded  by  Modern  Life; 
and  Essays  on  a  Liberal  Education.  Before  the  discussion  of  these  had 
died  away  in  America  the  conflict  was  rekindled  l)y  Charles  Francis 
Adams'  College  Fetich,  since  which  it  has  been  continuous  and  can  very 
easily  be  followed  in  the  indices  of  the  Nation,  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  the 
Popular  Science  Monthly,  the  various  journals  of  education,  the  Inde- 
pendent, etc.  For  Germany  see  Paulsen,  Gcschichte  des  gelehrten  Utttcr- 
richts,  II,  441  fT.,  595;  "Intervention  of  the  Emperor,"  G20  fT.  For 
Prance  cf.  Fouillee,  94,  and  Translator's  Preface,  xiii;  Weiss,  "L'Edu- 
cation  classique,"  Revue  des  deux  mondes,  IHl'.i,  V,  392;  Bruneti^re, 
"La  question  du  latin"  (review  of  Raoul  Frary),  ibid.,  1885,  VI,  s<)2; 
Breal,  "La  tradition  du  latin,"  ibid.,  CV,  551. 

■So  already  Gildersleeve  in  1808  (p.  10):  "Sydney  Smith's  com- 
plaint of  'Too  much  Latin  and  Greek'  lias  become  the  war-cry,  'Little 
Latin  and  no  Greek  at  all.'  " 

2  For  this  common  nan  sccjuitur  cf.  Zielinski,  up.  cit.,  15;  Huxley, 
op.  cit.,  149;  Macauliiy,  ptis-sirn.  The  argument  is  used  already-  by 
Descartes. 


324  Humanistic  Studies 

enter  into  an  unholy  alliance  with  the  legions  of  Philistia 
to  swell  the  unthinking  clamor  against  dead  languages 
and  useless  studies.  Whatever  the  talking  delegates  of 
science  may  say  in  their  haste,  thoughtful  scientific  men^ 
require  no  professor  of  Greek  to  tell  them  that  the  lan- 
guages and  literatures  of  the  1300  years  of  continuous 
civilization  from  Homer  to  Julian  subtend  a  far  larger 
arc  of  the  great  circle  of  knowledge  than  Sanskrit  or  Zend 
or  the  other  specialties  to  which  they  are  so  often  com- 
pared. Whether  they  hold  this  place  by  their  intrinsic 
beauty  and  sublimity,^  by  "the  grand  simplicity  of  their 
statement  of  the  everlasting  problems  of  human  life,"^ 
by  their  disciplinary  value,  bj'  their  enormous  contri- 
bution of  facts  to  the  mental  and  moral  and  historical 


1  I  cite  a  few  names  at  random:  Berthelot,  Science  et  morale,  125, 
favors  two  types  of  education,  "i'un  fonde  essentiellement  sur  les  lettres 
anciennes,"  etc.  Lord  Kelvin,  in  his  Life  by  Thompson,  p.  1115:  "I 
think  for  the  sake  of  mathematicians  and  science  students  Cambridge 
and  Oxford  should  keep  Greek,  of  which  even  a  very  moderate  extent 
is  of  very  great  value."  Cf.  the  admirable  definition  (ibid.,  1168):  "A 
university  is  a  place  that  fits  some  men  for  earning  a  livelihood,  and 
makes  life  better  worth  living  for  all  men."  Humboldt's  and  Emil  du 
Bois  Reymond's  views  are  well  known  (Fouillee,  op.  cit.,  177).  See  also 
President  A.  C.  Humphreys  in  Proceed.  Forty-eighth  Ann.  Commence. 
Penn.  State  Coll.,  44.  Josiah  Cook,  Pop.  Sci.  Mo.,  XXIV,  1  ff.  Fred- 
erick B.  Loomis,  Independent,  LIX  (1905),  486.  Cf.  Whitman,  Barnes, 
Pierce,  Dabney,  Dana,  supra,  249,  246-248.  The  hostile  testimony 
(e.g.,  of  Nef)  refers  largely  to  required  or  excessive  classics.  Cf. 
the  fine  words  of  Huxley,  Science  and  Education,  98  and  182.  Tyn- 
dall,  Fragments  of  Science  ("Home  Library"),  415.  Thayer  in  St.  Louis 
Congress,  VI,  218:  "When  in  the  period  of  so-called  secondary  education 
it  is  proposed  to  substitute  the  study  of  the  natural  sciences  for  a  good 
training  in  the  humanities,  there  is  danger  of  drying  up  some  of  the 
sources  from  which  this  very  scientific  expansion  has  sprung."  For 
German  scientific  men  see  Holmes,  Nat.  Rev.,  XLII,  103  ff. 

2  Jebb,  529;  Mill,  op.  cit.,  IV,  352:  "Compositions  which  from  the 
altered  conditions  of  human  life  are  likely  to  be  seldom  paralleled  in 
their  sustained  excellence  by  the  times  to  come." 

*  Huxley,  Science  and  Education,  98. 


The  New  Education  325 

sciences^  and  the  "wisdom  of  life,"-  by  their  renewal 
of  the  intellectual  life  of  Europe  at  the  Renaissance  and 
yet  again  at  the  German  revival  and  reorganization  of 
science  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  or  as  the 
sources  and  inspiration  of  modern  literature^  and  by  their 
still  dominant  influence  in  the  greatest  English  poets  of 
the  nineteenth  century  or  by  all  these  things  together, 
matters  not.  They  hold  the  place,  and  they  cannot  be 
relegated  to  the  position  of  erudite  specialties  without 
an  emasculation  of  our  discipline  and  an  impoverishment 
of  our  culture.^ 

But  controversy  like  all  literary  forms  tends  to  stereo- 
type itself.  Educational  conventions  still  echo  to  denun- 
ciation of  abuses  as  obsolete  as  the  Inquisition.  Language 
that  would  be  an  exaggeration  if  used  of  the  most  hide- 
bound, old-style,  Latin-verse-writing  English  public 
school,  the  narrowest  French  lycee,  is  appHed  to  "the 
tyranny  of  the  classics"  in  high  schools  where  the  teacher 
is  forbidden  to  use  the  Bible  and  is  applauded  for  taking 

1  For  the  propaedeutic,  implicit,  or  indirect  educational  values  of 
classical  study  cf.  Shorey  in  School  Rev.,  V,  226-27;  the  illustrations 
drawn  from  his  own  teaching  by  Zielinski,  op.  cit.,  99  ff.  ("Ein  Philolog 
kann  alles  brauchen");  Shorey,  "Philology  and  Classical  Philology," 
Class.  Rev.,  I,  182-83  ff. ;  Matthew  Arnold's  charming  "Speech  at  Eton," 
Irish  Essays,  V;  Wenley,  "The  Nature  of  Culture  Studies,"  supra,  59-81. 

2  Mill,  op.  cit.,  IV,  354  ff.;  Gildersleeve,  op.  cit.,  21;  Jebb,  op.  cit., 
540. 

'  Jebb,  op.  cit.,  54;   infra,  p.  65. 

<  Cf.  among  countless  quotable  utterances  to  this  effect  from  the 
chief  writers  of  the  nineteenth  century,  Richter  cited  by  Zielinski,  op.  cit., 
109,  and  Laurie,  op.  cit.,  186:  "Mankind  would  sink  into  a  bottomless 
abyss  if  our  youth  on  their  journey  to  the  fair  of  life  did  not  pass  through 
the  tranquil  and  noble  shrine  of  antiquity."  Froude,  Words  about 
Oxford:  "This  would  be  to  exclude  ourselves  from  an  acquaintance 
with  all  past  time  except  in  monkish  fiction,"  etc.  Goethe,  Sprtiche  in 
Prosa,  510:  "  Moge  das  Studium  der  griechischen  und  romischen  Litera- 
tur  immerfort  die  Basis  der  hijheren  Bildung  bleiben." 


326  Humanistic  Studies 

the  daily  newspaper  as  a  textbook.  The  protests  of 
French  Hberals  against  the  former  official  requirement  of 
a  classical  education  for  access  to  all  professions  and 
public  offices  are  transferred  to  American  conditions  to 
which  they  are  wholly  inapplicable.*  The  arguments  of 
Sydney  Smith  denouncing  compulsory  Latin  verse  writing 
and  of  Macaulay  holding  a  brief  for  the  University  of 
London  against  the  obstructionist  prejudices  of  Oxford  or 
elaborating  a  false  antithesis  between  the  Baconian  and 
the  Platonic  philosophy  are  taken  from  the  context^  and 
used  in  support  of  policies  which  Sydney  Smith  and 
Macaulay  would  have  been  the  first  to  deplore. 

It  is  time  to  recognize  that  the  work  of  Huxley, 
Tyndall,  Spencer,  Youmans,  and  President  Eliot  has  been 
done  once  for  all.  "The  mere  man  of  letters  who  affects 
to  ignore  and  despise  science"  may  have  existed  in  Hux- 
ley's England.  Today  he  is  as  extinct  as  the  dodo.  The 
"enemies  of  science,"  of  whom  Professor  Lankester  com- 
plains, are  speech  automatisms  surviving  in  the  rhetoric 
of  science. 

The  victory  of  our  scientific  colleagues  is  overwhelm- 
ing, and  the  Cinderella^  pose  is  an  anachronism.^  Huxley 
was  fighting  to  reform  schools  in  which  all  boys,  whatever 
their  tastes,  were  compelled  to  compose  Latin  verses,  and 
in  which,  as  he  said,  with  gross  but  then  pardonable 
exaggeration,  twelve  years'  hard  study  of  Greek  left  the 
victim  unable  to  construe  a  page  of  easy  prose.     And  so 

'  See  Shorey  in  Proc.  oth  Conf.  Assoc.  Am.  Univ.,  70. 

2  E.g.,  by  Woodward,  Proc.  Am.  Assoc,  for  Adv.  of  Sci.,  1907;  cf. 
Indep.,  LXII,  107;  and  by  H.  W.,  "The  Battle  of  the  Books," 
Westminster,  CLX,  425  ff. 

5  Spencer,  op.  cit.,  87,  copied  by  all  his  successors. 

■•"It  seems  clear  that  science  nowadays  is  proud  and  not  litera- 
ture."— Fouillee,  op.  cit.,  59. 


The  New  Education  327 

today  professors  of  science  who  are  not  quite  Huxleys 
step  out  of  their  palatial  laboratories  and  splendidly 
equipped  offices  to  thunder  against  the  obstruction  of 
modern  progress  by  classics  in  schools  where  not  2  per 
cent  of  the  students  learn  the  Greek  alphabet,  where 
no  one  is  required  to  study  Latin,  and  few  do  study  it 
more  than  two  or  three  years.  They  forget  that  if 
Huxley  were  with  us  today  he  would  probably  be  pleading 
for  a  revival  of  classical  studies.^  Whatever  the  griev- 
ances of  the  past,  present  attacks  on  the  classics  are  in- 
spired by  the  revolt  against  discipline  and  hard  work, 
the  impatience  of  all  serious  pre-vocational  study,  the 
demand  for  quick  utilitarian  results,  and  absorption  in 
the  up-to-date.^  Our  scientific  colleagues  who  invoke 
these  sentiments  against  us  will  find  that  they  are  playing 
with  fire  and  enlisting  allies  whom  they  cannot  control. 
The  public  will  see  no  logical  halting-place  between  their 
position  and  that  of  Mr.  Crane  of  Chicago.  The  boy 
whom  they  have  encouraged  to  shirk  the  discipline  of 
Latin  will  find  mathematics  and  physics  still  more  irksome. 
The  professional  constituency  of  engineers  and  chemical 
experts  they  will  retain.  But  the  majority  will  go  snap 
hunting  in  the  happy  fields  of  English  literature  and  the 
social  sciences.  Let  not  our  scientific  colleagues  deceive 
themselves.  They  are  more  allied  to  us  by  the  severity 
and  definiteness  of  their  discipline  than  divided  by  differ- 
ences of  matter  and  method.  In  the  fundamental 
classification  of  studies  into  those  which  exercise  and  those 
which  titillate  the  mind  they  belong  with  us.  You  can- 
not really  teach  anything  by  lectures,  experience  meetings, 

1  Cf.  the  enormous  conces.sion  in  Science  and  Education,  153. 

2  Cf.  the  brilliant  and  caustic  paper  by  Mrs.  Emily  James  Putnam 
in  Putnam'n,  III,  418;   Zielinski,  op.  cit.,  206. 


328  Humanistic  Studies 

heart-to-heart  talks,  the  pseudo-Socratic  method,  and 
expansion  of  the  student's  personaUty.  But  you  cannot 
even  pretend  to  teach  classics  and  the  exact  sciences  in 
this  way.  In  these  days  that  is  a  bond.  As  serious 
workers  and  teachers  you  belong  with  us.  The  allies 
whom  you  encourage  to  sap  our  discipline  with  the  "soft 
moisture  of  irrelevant  sentimentality"  will  not  stop  there. 
They  are  past  masters  in  what  Mrs.  Wharton  calls  the 
art  of  converting  second-hand  ideas  into  first-hand 
emotions.  They  will  humanize  your  cold  abstract  sciences 
in  a  way  that  will  surprise  you.  I  quote  from  the  report 
of  a  recent  educational  conference: 

At  3  P.M.  Miss  N.  Andrews,  principal  of  the  Happy  Grove 
Girls'  School,  conducted  a  regular  junior  class  meeting.  A  very 
helpful  feature  of  this  meeting  was  an  illustration  by  the  use  of 
iodine  and  hyposulphite  of  soda,  showing  how  sin  defiles  the 
heart,  and  how  the  blood  of  Jesus  can  cleanse  it. 

When  this  generation  of  kindergarten  Christian  Scientists 
arrives  in  your  laboratories  you  will  wish  too  late  that 
they  had  been  set  to  gnaw  the  file  of  Latin  grammar  for 
a  3'ear  or  two.^  You  will  find  a  new  meaning  in  Professor 
Karl  Pearson's  statement^  that  the  most  valuable  acquisi- 
tions of  his  early  education  were  the  notions  of  method 
which  he  derived  from  Greek  grammar.^  You  will  admit 
that,  after  all,  there  may  be  something  in  Anatole  France's 
warning  that  since  the  methods  of  science  exceed  the 
limitations  of  children  the  teacher  will  confine  himself  to 
the  terminology.  You  will  be  able  to  interpret  Brune- 
tiere's  remark  that  neither  infancy  nor  youth  can  support 

'  Cf.  Sadler,  supra,  103;    "What  ....  can  be  done  in  a  subject 
such  as  physiology  when,"  etc. 
»  Grammar  of  Science. 
'  Cf.  also  Fouill6e,  op.  cit.,  66,  top. 


The  New  Education  329 

the  intoxication  with  which  science  at  first  dazes  its 
neophytes,  and  you  will  sadly  verify  the  accomplishment 
of  George  Eliot's  prophecy  of  a  generation  "dizzy  with 
indigestion  of  recent  science  and  philosophy." 

Such  terms  as  "culture,"  "discipline,"  "utility,"  a 
"liberal"  education  have  been  much  bandied  about  in 
idle  controversy.^  They  are  all,  perhaps,  equivocal  or 
question-begging,  and  hardly  admit  of  authoritative 
definition.  Yet  you  all  understand  them  well  enough  to 
know  what  I  mean  by  saying  that  the  study  of  the  exact 
sciences  yields  utility,  discipline,  and  a  kind  of  culture; 
that  classics  give  culture,  discipline,  and  a  kind  of  utility; 
and  that  today  they  are  conjointly  opposed  to  a  vast  array 
of  miscellaneous  "free  electives"  which  are  more  popular 
largely  because  as  at  present  taught  they  demand  and 
impart  neither  discipline  nor  culture  nor  utility,  but  only 
information,  entertainment,  and  intellectual  dissipation. 
These  studies  fall  into  two  chief  groups,  the  demi-sciences, 
that  is,  the  so-called  moral  and  social  sciences,  and  modern 
linguistic  and  literary  studies.  I  intend  no  flisparage- 
ment  by  the  term  demi-sciences.  There  is  no  higher 
university  work  than  pioneer  exploration  of  subjects  not 
yet  definitely  constituted  as  sciences.  But  the  personal 
magnetism  in  the  classroom  of  a  Giddings,  a  Small,  a 
Vincent,  a  Ross,  a  Cooley  should  not  l)lind  us  to  the  fact 
that  these  studies  demand,  as  Plato  said,-  the  severest, 

1  Cf.  Huxley,  op.  cit.,  141,  on  "Real  C.'ulture";  Flexnor  in  Sciencf, 
XXIX,  370;  Frederick  Harrison's  satire  on  Arnold's  "Culture  and 
Anarchy,"  with  Arnold's  reply;  Youmans'  "The  Culture  Demanded 
by  Modern  Life,"  Essays  on  a  Liberal  Education,  Macnullan.  1.S67; 
Newcomb,  "What  Is  a  Liberal  Education"?"  in  Science,  III,  43.J;  Wood- 
ward in  Science,  XIV,  47G;  Huxley,  op.  cit.,  KO;  Mrs.  Kniily  .James 
Putnam,  Putnam's,  III,  421. 

2  Cf.  my  paper  on  "Some  Ideals  of  Education  in  Plato's  Rei)ublic," 
Educational  Bi-Monthly,  February.  19()H. 


330  Humanistic  Studies 

not  the  loosest,  preparatory  training,  and  that,  "freely 
elected,"  without  such  preparation,  they  will  merely 
muddle  the  mind  of  the  average  American  undergraduate. 

The  outspoken  expression  of  this  opinion,  which  the 
majority  of  classicists  share,  threatens  to  convert  the  old 
warfare  of  science  and  classics  into  a  conflict  between 
classics  and  the  social  sciences.'  For  the  history  of  this 
merry  war  we  cannot  delay.  One  point  only  concerns  us 
here.  Sociology  and  the  new  psychology  have  staked  out 
the  entire  coast  of  the  unknown  continent  of  knowledge 
and  claim  all  the  hinterland.  Abstractly  and  a  priori 
this  is  plausible  enough.  An  infinite  psychologist  could 
pronounce  on  the  credibility  of  a  witness,  advise  infallibly 
on  the  choice  of  a  vocation^  and  prescribe  the  proper 
intellectual  diet  for  every  idiosyncrasy.  In  a  finite 
psychologist  it  is — well,  this  is  an  age  of  advertising. 

Like  claims  could  be  made  for  an  abstract  or  ideal 
sociology.  Education  is  preparation  for  hfe,  and  human 
life  and  mind  exist  and  develop  only  in  and  through 
society.-  After  the  psychologist  has  annexed  everything 
else,  the  sociologist  may  logically  swallow  him,  while  the 
physiologist  lies  in  wait  for  both.  They  may  be  left  to 
fight  that  out — a  hundred  or  a  thousand  years  hence. 
But  today  there  is  no  science  of  psychology,^  sociology,  or 
pedagogy  that  can  pronounce  with  any  authority  on  either 

'  Many  representatives  of  the  mental  and  moral  sciences,  of  course, 
recognize  that  classics  are  still  the  best  available  propaedeutic  for  them; 
notably  Fouillee,  and  with  some  reserves  Giddings. 

2  To  readers  of  Plato's  Protagoras  and  Republic,  there  is  something 
supremely  funny  in  the  statement  that  "the  most  important  general 
advance  [in  psychology  from  1881  to  1906]  seems  to  be  the  recognition 
that  the  mind  of  the  human  adult  is  a  social  product." — E.  Ray  Lan- 
kester,  The  Kingdom  of  Man,  122. 

» Cf.  Jowett's  Plato,  IV,  175,  "On  the  Nature  and  Limits  of  Psy- 
chology." 


The  New  Education  331 

the  aims  or  the  methods  of  education.^  The  confident 
affirmations  of  our  colleagues  in  these  departments  are 
not,  then,  to  be  received  as  the  pronouncements  of  experts, 
but  as  tlie  opinions  of  observers  who  like  ourselves  may 
be  partisans. - 

Throughout  this  discussion  I  have  taken  for  granted 
the  general  belief  of  educators,  statesmen,  and  the  man 
in  the  street,  from  Plato  and  Aristotle  to  John  Stuart 
Mill,  Faraday,^  Lincoln,*  President  Taft,^  and  Anatole 
France,  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  intellectual  discipline, 
and  that  some  studies  are  a  better  mental  gjmmastic  than 
others.  This,  like  other  notions  of  "common-sense,"  is 
subject  to  all  due  qualifications  and  limitations.  But 
it  is  now  denied  altogether,  and  the  authority  of  Plato, 
Mill,  Faraday,  or  Lincoln  is  met  by  the  names  of  0'Shea> 
Bagley,  Horn,  Thorndike,  Bolton,  and  DeGarmo.  Tastes 
in  authorities  differ.  But  these  gentlemen  are  cited,  not 
as  authorities,  but  as  experts  who  have  proved  by  scien- 
tific experiment  and  ratiocination  that  mental  discipline 
is  a  myth.  There  is  no  such  proof,  and  no  prospect  of  it. 
There  are,  in  general,  no  laboratory  experiments  that 
teach  us  anything  about  the  higher  mental  processes 
which  we  cannot  observe  and  infer  by  better  and  more 

1  Cf.  Zielinski,  op.  cit.,  23;  James,  Talks  to  Teachers,  130-37;  Anatole 
France,  Le  jardin  d' epicure,  218:  "Quand  la  biologie  sera  constitut6e, 
c'est  k  dire  dans  quelrjues  millions  d'annees,  on  pourra  peut-etre  con- 
struire  une  sociologie";  Shorey,  Class.  Jour.,  I,  187;  St.  Louis  Congress, 
III,  370,  375-76;   Angell,  Pillsbury,  and  Judd  in  Symposium  VII. 

2  Observe  the  disinterested  scientific  temper  in  which  Superintend- 
ent Harris  discusses  the  psychology  of  formal  dispii)lino:  "liut  Greek  is 
already  a  vanishing  clement  in  our  secondary  schools,  and  it  needs  but 
a  few  more  strokes  to  put  it  entirely  hors  de  combat." — Education,  XXV, 
425. 

3  Culture  Demanded  by  Modern  Life,  200. 

«  See  Croly,  Promise  of  American  Life,  91-92. 
'  Bryn  Mawr  Alumnae  Quarterly,  IV,  No.  2,  79. 


332  Humanistic  Studies 

natural  methods.'  Still  less  are  there  any  that  can  even 
approximate  to  the  solution  of  the  complicated  problem 
of  the  total  value  and  effect  of  a  course  of  study.  There 
is  no  authentic  deliverance  of  science  here  to  oppose  to  the 
vast  presumption  of  common-sense  and  the  belief  of  the 
majority  oi  educated  and  practical  men.^  And  we  are 
therefore  still  entitled  to  ask,  If  you  reject  the  classics 
and  the  elective  system  is  a  failure,  what  are  you  prepared 
to    substitute?^     Theoretically    there    are    alternatives 

'  Inserting  needles  into  holes,  estimating  areas,  drawing  with  the 
hand  hidden  behind  a  screen,  etc.,  etc.,  are  all  falsifying  simplifications 
of  the  infinitely  complex  problem  to  the  solution  of  which  they  may 
or  may  not  lead  in  the  years  to  come.  Nor  despite  Dr.  Dawson's  warn- 
ing against  "neurones  and  connecting  fibers  fashioned  through  and 
through  for  the  study  of  the  Latin  language,"  do  we  know  enough 
about  "localization  of  function"  to  argue  the  question  intelligently  on 
this  basis.  The  leading  opponents  of  the  idea  of  mental  discipline, 
whenever  they  forget  themselves,  all  take  it  for  granted,  or  make  self- 
stultifying  concessions  to  it. 

2  Cf.  Zielinski,  op.  cit.,  12,  22;  Plato,  Republic,  526B,  527D.  There 
is  no  space  to  continue  the  discussion  here.  But  I  doubt  whether  many 
competent  psychologists  will  be  willing  seriously  to  maintain  that  serious 
results  have  as  yet  been  achieved.  Cf.  the  sensible  summing  up  of  the 
controversy  by  Professor  Colvin  in  University  of  Illinois  Bulletin,  VII, 
No.  7,  October  7,  1909.  The  whole  recent  "unsettlement  of  the  doctrine 
of  formal  discipline"  took  its  start  as  a  polemical  move  and  not  as  a 
disinterested  scientific  investigation.  And  it  still  bears  the  impress  of 
its  origin.  It  was  perhaps  suggested  by  Youmans'  essay  on  "Mental 
Discipline  in  Education,"  introductory  to  The  Culture  Demanded  by 
Modern  Life.  Cf.  O'Shea,  Education  as  Adjustment,  ix:  "My  chief 
motive  .  .  .  .  is  to  try  to  show  that  the  doctrine  of  formal  training, 
etc.,  etc.";  Heck,  Mental  Discipline  and  Educational  Values,  I,  strangely 
says,  after  Monroe,  that  the  doctrine  of  formal  discipline  was  first  clearly 
formulated  in  the  seventeenth  century  in  defense  of  classical  studies. 
Professor  Bagley,  The  Educative  Process,  211,  gravely  alleges  against  the 
doctrine  his  experience  that  a  year  of  habituation  to  hard  work  at  his 
desk  did  not  discipline  him  out  of  a  disinclination  to  regular  work  on 
the  farm  in  his  summer  vacation.  This  may  pair  off  with  the  "experi- 
ments" which  show  that  students  who  are  compelled  to  prepare  neat 
papers  in  one  subject  will  not  spontaneously  take  the  same  extra  pains 
in  other  classrooms  {ibid.,  208). 

'  Cf.  Lowell,  Prose  Works,  VI,  166:    "We  know  not  whither  other 

studies  will  lead  us We  do  know  to  what  summits   .... 

this  has  led  and  what  the  many-sided  outlook  thence." 


The  New  Education  333 

which,  not  being  a  fanatic,  I  would  gladly  see  organized 
into  a  rational  group  system. i  But  the  practical  alter- 
native which  anticlassical  fanaticism  at  present  offers  is 
formulated  by  one  of  your  own  faculty  with  the  uncon- 
scious irony  of  italics  as  ''Anything  and  everything  con- 
nected,with  modern  life"— a  large  order.^  Professor  King 
would  of  course  know  how  to  apply  this  formula  with 
discretion.  But  he  would  perhaps  be  somewhat  dismaj'ed 
to  see  how  it  is  applied  in  the  short  course  of  the  Cokato 
High  School  by  an  enthusiastic  convertite  who  declares 
that  "we  are  doing  some  intensive  work  in  spots  out  in 
this  state  regardless  of  college  requirements  in  English 
or  any  other  requirements  this  side  of  the  moon." 

The  modern  literary  and  linguistic  group  of  studies 
presents  no  problem  in  theory.  There  may  be  some 
question  how  much  Latin  those  students  whose  educa- 
tion ends  with  the  high  school  can  afford  to  take.  But 
the  more  advanced  collegiate  and  university  study  of 
English,  modern  languages,  history,  and  philosophy 
without  any  preparation  in  classics  is  a  sorry  jest.^  The 
teachers  themselves  are  aware  of  this  when  not  misled  by 
departmental  rivalries  or  cowed  by  fatalistic  acquiescence 
in  the  low  standards  which  the  spoiled  American  boy  and 
the  indulgent  American  parent  are  forcing  upon  our 
schools.'*     They  too  must  be  brought  to  realize  that  the 

1  Cf.  Fouillee,  op.  cit.,  151-52,  and  Shorey,  in  Proceedings  of  the  Fifth 
Conference  of  the  Associations  of  American  Universities  (February,  1904, 
66-67),  and  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  International  Congress  of  Education 
(Chicago,  1893,  138). 

2  Educ.  Rev.,  XXXIII,  409.  For  a  good  criticism  of  this  ideal,  cf. 
T.  E.  Page,  in  Edinburgh  Review,  XXXIV,  144;   Fouill6e,  op.  cit.,  136  IT. 

'See  Churton  Collins,  "Greek  at  the  Universities,"  Fortnightly 
(1905),  260-71. 

<  Cf.  Crandgent,  "French  as  a  Substitute  for  Latin,"  School  Review, 
XII,   462-67;     Warren,   Methods   of  Teaching  Modern  Languages,    114: 


334  Humanistic  Studies 

cause  of  the  higher  culture  is  one  and  their  lot  is  bound 
up  with  ours.'  Our  colleagues  in  modern  languages  have 
had  their  warning  from  President  Schurman.  They 
cannot  join  the  hue  and  cry  against  dead  classics  and  retain 
their  seminars  in  Dante  and  Old  French  and  their  culture 
courses  in  Racine  and  Goethe.  For  the  practical  man 
Corneille  and  Lessing  are  as  dead  as  Homer  and  Aristotle. 
His  only  use  for  French  is  "to  fight  the  battle  of  life — 
with  waiters  in  French  restaurants."  Cornell  University, 
possessing  the  finest  Dante  library  in  the  country,  had 
not  a  single  student  of  Dante  in  1904.^  After  Greek, 
Latin,  and  after  Latin,  all  literary,  historical,  and  philo- 
logical study  of  French  and  German.  Convert  your 
departments  into  Berlitz  schools  of  languages.  It  is  that 
which  you  are  educating  the  public  to  demand,  and  that 
is  all  your  students  will  be  capable  of.  They  already 
complain  that  anything  older  or  harder  than  Labiche  is 
difficult  and  useless.^ 

'"the  first  duty  of  modern  language  instructors  is  to  preserve  as  far  as 
possible  the  advantages  derived  from  the  study  of  the  displaced 
languages,  Greek  and  Latin."  As  Fouillee  says  (p.  156),  the  alternative 
is  either  the  hotel  waiter's  cheap  polyglotism  or  the  study  of  living 
languages  by  the  critical  methods  applied  to  the  languages  called 
dead.  Cf.  Jebb,  op.  cit.,  558.  Lowell,  op.  cit.,  156:  "In  a  way  that 
demands  toil  and  thought  ....  as  Greek  and  Latin,  and  they  only, 
used  to  be  taught." 

1  Lowell,  op.  cit.,  157. 

»  Forman,  op.  cit.,  15.  I  am  informed  that  there  are  good  classes  in 
Dante  now  at  Cornell,  and  am  reminded  from  all  sides  that  there  are 
many  teachers  of  modern  languages  who  have  never  bowed  the  knee 
to  Baal  and  who  both  in  principle  and  in  practice  recognize  the  unity  and 
interdependence  of  culture  studies. 

3  Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  difficulty  of  Latin  syntax  or  Greek 
irregular  verbs,  it  is  no  paradox  to  maintain  that  the  ancient  classics 
are  more  simple,  sane,  direct,  and  lucid,  and  therefore  not  only  a  better 
educational  instrument  but  easier  than  the  masterpieces  of  modern 
literature  would  be  if  seriously  taught.  Cf.  Gildersleeve,  op.  cit.,  73; 
Fouillee,    op.   cit.,    124:     "not   universally   intelligible";    ibid.,    158  fif. 


The  New  Education  335 

The  teachers  of  EngUsh  may  lay  the  same  warnhig  to 
heart.  Shakespeare  is  the  belated  bard  of  feudalism. 
Milton's  diction  is  as  obsolete  to  the  readers  of  Mr. 
George  Ade  as  his  theology.  Tennyson  is  a  superan- 
nuated representative  of  the  ]\Iid- Victorian  compromise. 
Literature  dates  from  Robert  Louis  Stevenson;  and  Mr. 
Bernard  Shaw,  Mr.  Wells,  and  Mr.  Chesterton  are  not 
only  clever  fellows  and  shrewd  advertisers,  but  profound 
thinkers.  The  Bible,  too,  is  an  obsolete  and  forgotten 
classic.  There  is  nothing  that  the  unhappy  teachers  of 
English  can  presuppose  today.  They  have  sowed  the 
wind  and  are  reaping  the  whirlwind.  Here  is  a  letter 
recently  addressed  to  the  dramatic  critic  of  a  great 
newspaper : 

I  would  like  to  undertake  a  course  of  reading  on  the  litera- 
ture of  the  stage I  don't  want  to  be  directed  to  Shake- 
speare, or  the  Greek  dramatists,  or  to  Bell's  British  Theatre  or 
to  any  other  compendium  of  chestnuts  that  a  man  with  any 
healthy  interest  in  life  would  rather  saw  wood  than  read.'  I 
love  the  theatre  and  would  like  to  extend  my  knowledge  if  any 
of  the  live  stuff  is  in  print. 

There  you  have  the  answer  to  Huxley's  oft-rejoeated  argu- 
ment: "If  an  Englishman  cannot  get  literary  culture  out 
of  his  Bible,  his  Shakespeare,  and  his  Milton,  neither  in 
my  belief  will  the  profoundest  study  of  Homer  and  Soph- 
Shelley's  "Prometheus"  is  harder  and  more  confused  than  that  of 
Aeschylus.  Bruneti6re,  "Question  du  latin,"  872:  "Dante  est  troj) 
subtil,  Shakspeare  est  trop  profond,  souvent  aussi  trop  obscur;  Goethe 
est  trop  savant,"  etc.  So  Goldwin  Smith  ap.  Taylor,  .355.  IlluminatiiiK 
in  this  connection  is  Professor  Canby's  experience  that  the  despised 
eighteenth-century  Latinized  English  classics  are  better  for  teaohing 
than  the  Elizabethans  or  the  Romantics.  See  Nation  (August  4,  1910), 
99. 

'Clearly  a  disciple  of  Spencer,  who  after  reading  six  books  of  iln' 
Iliad  to  "study  superstitions"  "felt  that  I  would  rather  give  a  large  sum 
than  read  to  the  end." 


336  Humanistic  Studies 

ocles,  Virgil  and  Horace,  give  it  to  him."  The  question 
is  not  whether  an  EngHshman  can,  but  whether  the  Ameri- 
can student  will,  if  the  universities  encourage  the  spirit 
of  Philistinism  to  create  an  atmosphere  in  which  the  study 
of  Homer  and  Sophocles  cannot  live.^  You  may  perhaps 
reduce  classical  studies  to  the  position  of  Sanskrit  and 
Zend  and  Hebrew.  If  you  do,  we  shall  faithfully  hand 
on  the  torch  of  true  scholarship  to  the  audience  fit  and  few 
that  remains,  and  watch  with  amusement  your  attempts 
to  teach  the  history,  philology,  and  higher  criticism  of 
Enghsh  literature  in  the  environment  that  you  have 
helped  to  create.^  In  short,  as  we  said  to  our  scientific 
colleagues  that  the  case  of  the  classics  is  the  case  of  serious 
discipline  in  education,  so  we  warn  the  representatives 
of  the  modern  humanities  that  the  cause  of  all  humane 
culture  and  historic  criticism  is  bound  up  with  the  studies 
that  were  the  first  and  remain  the  highest  humanities. 

There  is  something  to  be  said  for  the  view  that  Tenny- 
son, Milton,  Goethe,  Dante,  and  Racine  are  as  obsolete  as 
Virgil  and  Sophocles,  and  that  the  modern  man's  sole 
requirements  are  technical  experts  cheaply  hired,  indexes 
to  "hold  the  eel  of  science  by  the  tail,"  the  command  of 
a  "nervous,"  colloquial  English  style,  a  "typewriter 
girl"  to  correct  his  spelling,  and  a  vaudeville  to  relax  his 
mind.  But  there  is  very  little  to  be  said  for  the  endeavor 
to  rear  a  vast  fabric  of  historic  and  literary  scholarship 
in  our  universities  without  laying  the  indispensable 
foundations.     Our  culture  might  conceivably  forego  the 

1  Cf.  Pop.  Sci.  Mo.,  XVII,  150:  "If  I  had  my  way  in  the  halls  of 
education,  I  would  not  only  dismiss  Latin  and  Greek,  but  send  off  pack- 
ing with  them  the  historical  and  comparative  study  of  English  itself." 

2  Cf.  the  wail  of  Gayley,  "The  Collapse  of  Culture,"  in  Idols  of 
Education;  Barrett  Wendell's  rueful  confessions  in  The  Mystery  of 
Education;   Emile  Faguet  in  Revue  des  deux  mondes  (1911). 


The  New  Education  337 

first-hand  knowledge  of  the  supreme  literary  masterpieces 
of  the  world.  We  might  sit  down  in  stolid  ignorance  of 
the  thousand  years  of  uninterrupted  civilization  from 
Aeschylus  to  Claudian.  We  might  renounce  the  historical 
study  of  the  Middle  Ages.  But  that  would  only  be  the 
beginning  of  our  losses.  The  languages,  the  literatures, 
the  philosophy,  the  whole  higher  spiritual  tradition  of 
the  past  four  hundred  years  are  unintelligible  without 
this  key.i  It  is  impossible  to  explain  this  to  those  who  have 
not  already  in  some  measure,  however  slight,  verified  it  in 
their  own  experience.  The  detail  is  too  enormous.  The 
books  and  essays  to  which  I  could  refer  you  only  skim  the 
surface  of  the  subject.^  Anything  that  we  could  add  here 
would  be  superfluous  for  those  who  know,  and  of  those 
who  will  not  believe  or  who  cannot  divine  what  we  are 
hinting  at  we  can  only  say  with  Doctor  Johnson,  "Sir, 
their  ignorance  is  so  great  that  I  am  afraid  to  show  them 
the  bottom  of  it."  They  are  not  initiated.  They  do 
not  understand  the  lingua  franca  of  European  culture. 
Its  vocabulary,  its  terms  of  art  and  criticism,  its  termi- 
nology of  science  and  philosophy,  charged  with  the  cumu- 
lative associations  of  three  thousand  years,  are  for  them 
the    arbitrary    counters    of    a    mechanically    memorized 

»  Cf.  Bruneti^re,  "La  question  du  latin,"  Revue  dcs  deux  mondes 
(1885),  VI,  862  ff.;  Clapp.  op.  ct7.,  97-98;  Shorey,  "Relations  of  Classical 
Literature  to  Other  Branches  of  Learning,"  St.  Louis  Congress  (1904), 
III,  3.37-85. 

2  Cf.  the  bibliography  in  Shorey,  supra;  Ziclinski,  Our  Debt  to  Antiq- 
uity; Mahaffy,  "What  Have  the  Greeks  Done  for  Civilization?"; 
Jebb,  Essays  and  Addresses,  541-42,  560;  Gildersleeve,  op.  cit.,  23,  44, 
60;  Matthew  Arnold,  Essays  in  Criticism  (3d  series),  "On  the  Modern 
Element  in  Literature";  Churton  Collins,  The  Study  of  English  Literature 
(Macmillan,  1891).  Lowell,  VI,  166:  "Greek  literature  is  also  the  most 
fruitful  comment  on  our  own";  174:  "the  bees  from  all  climes  still 
fetch  honey  from  the  tiny  garden-plot  of  Theocritus"  (cf.  Kerlin's 
Yale  dissertation,  "Theocritus  in  English  Literature"). 


338  Humanistic  Studies 

Volapiik.  The  inspirations,  the  standards  of  taste,  the 
canons  of  criticism,  the  dialectic  of  ideas,  of  the  leaders  of 
European  civilization  for  the  past  four  centuries  are  non- 
existent for  them.  They  cannot  estimate  the  thought  of 
their  own  or  any  other  generation,  because  they  do  not  know 
how  to  distinguish  its  peculiar  quality  from  the  common 
inheritance.  Literature  and  history  are  to  their  appre- 
hension all  surface.  The  latent  meanings,  the  second 
intentions,  the  allusions,  and  the  presuppositions  escape 
their  sense.  They  do  not  divine  the  existence  of  the 
deeper  currents. 

So  much  for  the  ideal.  But  will  the  average  graduate 
get  all  this?  No,  but  he  will  get  something,  and  the 
total  culture  of  our  country  will  get  more.  What  will  the 
average  school-boy  get,  or  the  average  business  man 
retain,  of  science  ? 

Once  more,  let  us  compare  either  ideals  with  ideals  or 
actualities  with  actualities.  We  are  not  saying  that  it  is 
a  great  thing  for  our  undergraduates  to  know  a  little 
classics.  We  are  saying  that  it  is  a  monstrous  thing  that 
they  should  not  know  any.^  It  is  deplorable  to  have  been 
taught  Latin  badly,  to  have  forgotten  how  to  read  Virgil 
and  Cicero  with  pleasure,  and  to  vent  your  pique  in 
denunciation  of  the  only  studies  whose  loss  you  seem  to 
regret.^  But  to  have  had  no  Latin  at  all  practically  means 
that  you  do  not  know  the  logic  or  understand  the  cate- 

1  Cf.  Harris,  "A  Brief  for  Latin,"  Educ.  Rev.,  XVII,  313. 

'  Mr.  Arthur  C.  Benson  may  stand  as  the  type  of  those  renegade 
classicists  who  take  this  tone  not  for  themselves,  but  in  pessimistic 
retrospection,  and  vicarious  propitiation  of  the  victims  of  their  own 
former  teaching.  It  brings  him  bad  luck.  In  the  Nineteenth  Century 
and  After,  November,  1910,  875,  he  writes:  "One  cannot  predicate  [sic] 
a  complete  success  from  such  a  reform."  This  gives  us  a  foretaste  of 
the  kind  of  English  that  we  may  "predicate"  from  a  reform  "predi- 
cated upon"  the  abandonment  of  classical  studies. 


The  New  Education  339 

gories  of  general  grammar  and  those  forms  of  language 
which  are  at  the  same  time  forms  of  thought;  that  you 
do  not  know  and  cannot  safely  learn  from  a  lexicon  the 
essential  and  root  meanings  of  English  vocables,  and  can 
therefore  neither  use  them  with  a  consciousness  of  their 
prime  sensuous  force^  nor  guard  yourself  against  mixed 
metaphor,^  that  you  are  mystified  by  the  variations  of 
meanings  in  like  Latin  derivations  in  Shakespeare,  the 
Romance  languages,  and  modern  English;  that  you  have 
no  historic  feeling  for  the  structure  of  the  period  which 
modern  prose  inherited  from  Isocrates  through  Cicero; 
that  the  difficulty  of  learning  French  or  Itahan  is  tripled 
for  you,^  and  the  possibility  of  really  understanding 
them  forever  precluded  ;"*  that  you  have  no  kej'  to  the 
terminology  of  science  and  philosophy,  to  law  and  inter- 
national law  Latin,  and  Latin  maxims,^  druggists'  Latin, 
botanists'  Latin,  physicians'  Latin;  that  you  cannot  even 
guess  the  meaning  of  the  countless  technical  phrases, 
familiar  quotations,  proverbs,  maxims,  and  comjx'ndious 
Latin  formulae  that  are  so  essential  a  part  of  the  flialect 
of  educated  men  that  the  fiercest  adversaries  of  the 
classics  besprinkle  their  pages  with  misprints  of  them;*^ 

1  Cf.  Pater,  "On  Style,"  Appreciations,  13,  17.  It  is  hardly  neces- 
sary to  answer  President  Hall's  cavil  that  an  obtrusive  consciousness 
and  a  pedantic  use  of  etymology  may  sometimes  be  harmful. 

2  Gildersleeve,  op.  cit.,  25. 

3  It  is  an  exaggeration  rather  than  a  misrepresentation  when  Mill 
speaks  (op.  cz<.,  IV,  345)  of  "that  ancient  language  ....  the  posses- 
sion of  which  makes  it  easier  to  learn  four  or  five  of  the  continental 
languages  than  it  is  to  learn  one  of  them  without  it."  On  the  greater 
ease  with  which  classicists  acfjuire  the  languages  of  India  cf.  Postgate, 
in  Fortnightly;  LXXII,  857. 

<  Le  latin  c'est  la  rai.son  du  frangais." — Vinet;  cf.  (Jilderslccvc, 
op.  cit.,  34. 

5  Foster,  supra,  221-22;   Scott,  .supra,  259. 

•See  the  works  of  President  Stanley  Hall  and  President  .Ionian, 
passim;    Fouill6e,  op.  cit.,  120;   (iiidersleeve,  on  Bigelow,  op.  cit.,  !». 


340  Humanistic  Studies 

that  you  cannot  study  the  early  history  of  modern  science 
and  philosophy,  or  read  their  masterpieces  in  the  original 
texts ;^  that  Rome  is  as  remote  for  you  as  China;  that 
Virgil,  Horace,  and  Cicero  are  mere  names;  that  French 
literature  is  a  panorama  without  perspective,  a  series  of 
unintelligible  allusions  ;2  that  travel  in  Italy  loses  half  its 
charm;  that  you  cannot  decipher  an  inscription  on  the 
Appian  way,  in  the  Catacombs,  in  Westminster  Abbey, 
on  Boston  Common,  or  on  the  terrace  of  Quebec,  or  verify 
a  quotation  from  St.  Augustine,  the  Vulgate,  the  Mass, 
Bacon,  Descartes,  Grotius'  On  War  and  Peace,  or  Spinoza's 
Ethics,  to  say  nothing  of  consulting  the  older  documents 
of  English  law  and  institutions,  the  sources  of  the  civil  law, 
on  which  the  laws  of  Europe  and  Louisiana  are  based, 
the  Monumenta  Rerum  Germanicarum,  or  Migne's  patro- 
logia,  or  reading  a  bull  of  the  Pope  or  a  telegram  of  the 
German  emperor;  that,  not  to  go  back  to  Milton  and 
the  Elizabethans,  who  are  unintelligible  without  Latin, 
you  cannot  make  out  the  texts  from  which  Addison's 
Spectator  discourses,  you  do  not  know  half  the  time  what 
Johnson  and  Boswell  are  talking  about ;  that  Pope  and  all 
of  the  characteristic  writers  of  the  so-called  Golden  Age 
are  sealed  books  to  you;  that  you  are  ill  at  ease  and  feel 
yourself  an  outsider  in  reading  the  correspondence  of 
Tennyson  and  Fitzgerald,  or  that  of  almost  any  educated 

'  "  I  should  like  my  aspirant  to  be  able  to  read  a  scientific  treatise  in 
Latin,  French,  or  German,  because  an  enormous  amount  of  anatomical 
knowledge  is  locked  up  in  those  languages." — Huxley,  Technical  Educa- 
tion, 409;  cf.  187.  Huxley  himself  was  not  happy  until  he  got  Greek. 
Half  of  Whewell's  plea  for  the  study  of  the  history  of  science  in  The 
Culture  Demanded  hy  Modern  Life  is  concerned  with  antiquity,  and 
many  of  the  authors  mentioned  in  the  other  half  wrote  in  Latin. 

'  Cf.  Ren6  Doumie,  "  L'enseignement  du  latin  et  la  litt6rature 
franjaise,"  in  Etudes  sur  la  litt.  franq.  I;  Br6al,  "La  tradition  du  latin," 
Revue  des  deux  mondes,  CV,  551  ff . 


The  New  Education  341 

Englishman  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  even  in  reading 
Thackeray's  novels;  that  half  of  Charles  Lamb's  puns 
lose  their  point;  and  that  when  Punch  alludes  to  the 
pathetic  scene  in  which  Colonel  Newcome  cries  ''absit 
omen!"  for  the  last  time,  you  don't  see  the  joke. 

If  our  scientific  colleagues,  forgetting  outworn  polemics 
and  on  sober  second  thought,  assure  us  that  the  jealous 
requirements  of  their  stern  mistress  demand  this  sacrifice, 
we  can  make  no  reply.  Let  them  deal  with  purely 
scientific  education  and  with  its  symbol,  the  B.S.  degree, 
in  their  discretion.  But  let  us  hear  no  more  of  the  farce 
of  a  literary,  a  philosophical,  or  a  historical  education  that 
omits  even  the  elements  of  the  languages  and  literatures 
on  which  all  literary  and  historical  studies  depend  for 
men  of  European  descent.  Our  acquiescence  in  such  a 
"collapse  of  culture"  is  due  to  our  supine  and  fatalistic 
acceptance  of  the  disgracefully  low  standards  which  the 
abuse  of  the  elective  system  and  the  premature  distrac- 
tion of  the  socially  precocious  and  intellectually  retarded 
American  boy  by  the  dissipations  of  modern  life  and 
society  have  imposed  upon  us.  Mill  may  have  over- 
estimated the  powers  of  acquisition  of  the  human  mind, 
but  he  was  far  nearer  right  than  we  are,  who  bestow 
degrees  on  students  who  have  merely  deigned  to  listen 
to  a  few  chatty  lectures  on  "anything  and  everything 
connected  with  modern  life." 

The  talk  of  ten  or  twelve  years'  ineffectual  study  of 
Latin  and  Greek  is  nonsense  or  misrepresentation.  It  is 
an  indictment  of  human  nature  and  bad  teaching,  not 
specially  of  classical  studies.  Undisciplined  students 
will  doubtless  dawdle  over  anything,  from  P>ench  to 
mathematics,  so  long  as  teachers  and  parents  permit  it. 
But  in  a  serious  school  one-fourth  of  the  student's  time 


342  Humanistic  Studies 

for  four  or  five  yoars  is  enough  for  the  acquisition,  together 
with  the  power  to  read  Cicero  and  Virgil  with  pleasure, 
of  more  English  than  classmates  who  omit  Latin  will 
probably  learn.  It  is  not  a  formidable  undertaking, 
except  for  students  whose  attention  is  too  dissipated  and 
whose  minds  are  too  flabby  to  master  anything  that  must 
be  remembered  beyond  the  close  of  the  current  term. 
There  is  and  always  will  be  ample  room  for  a  reasonable 
amount  of  Latin  in  any  rational  scheme  of  studies  that 
extends  four  or  more  years  beyond  the  graded  schools. 

Latin  is  a  necessity  in  anything  but  an  elementary  or 
purely  technical  education.  Greek  is  not  in  this  sense  a 
necessity.^  Neither  is  it  a  scholastic  specialty.  It  is  the 
first  of  luxuries,  a  luxury  which  no  one  proposes  to  pre- 
scribe for  all  collegians,  but  which  ought  to  be  enjoyed 
by  an  increasing  proportion  of  those  who  are  now  fright- 
ened away  from  it  by  exaggeration  of  its  difficulty  or  by 
utilitarian  objections  that  apply  with  equal  force  to  the 
inferior  substitutes  which  partisan  advisers  recommend 
in  its  place.  The  value  and  the  charm  of  even  a  little 
knowledge  of  Greek  has  often  been  explained,^  and  has 
been  repeatedly  demonstrated  in  the  courses  in  beginning 
Greek  offered  by  American  colleges  in  the  past  decade. 
Students  of  good  but  not  extraordinary  ability  have, 
while  keeping  up  their  other  work,  read  six  books  of  the 

'  I  cannot  pause  to  discuss  the  misconception  of  those  representatives 
of  science  who  argue,  not  quite  seriously  perhaps,  that  if  only  one  ancient 
language  is  to  be  studied  it  should  be  Greek.  This  might  be  true  for 
Mars  or  China.  It  is  plainly  not  true  for  that  Europe  which  was  evolved 
from  the  Roman  empire,  and  which  until  the  second  or  German  Renais- 
sance received  the  inspiration  of  Greece  mainly  through  Latin  literature. 

*  See  Jebb,  op.  cit.,  575-80;  "A  Popular  Study  of  Greek."  Presi- 
dent Mackenzie,  supra,  166,  adds  the  weighty  suggestion  that  those 
"who  do  not  possess  these  weapons  of  a  full  Christian  culture"  will  tend 
to  read  only  what  is  easy  and  avoid  scholarly  works  that  contain  even  a 
few  Greek  words  or  Latin  quotations. 


The  New  Education  343 

Anabasis  in  the  first  year  of  study;  have  completed  in 
three  years  the  A.B.  requirements  of  the  University  of 
Chicago,  including  eight  books  of  the  Odyssey,  two  Greek 
tragedies,  and  Plato's  Apology  and  Crito,  and  have  in 
the  fourth  year  of  study  read  the  entire  Republic  of  Plato 
with  intelhgence  -and  delight.  These  facts  and  similar 
results  obtained  in  other  universities  are  verifiable  by 
any  unprejudiced  inquirer,  and  they  make  it  difficult  to 
characterize  in  parliamentary  language  the  persistent 
misrepresentation  that  eight  or  ten  or  twelve  years' 
exclusive  study  of  the  classics  yields  no  results  comparable 
to  those  achieved  by  the  normal  student  in  other  studies. 
In  the  light  of  this  experience  no  fair-minded  dean  or 
judicious  adviser  of  students  already  biased  by  unthinking 
popular  prejudice  can  refuse  in  Lowell's  words  to  "give 
the  horse  a  chance  at  the  ancient  springs"  before  con- 
cluding that  he  will  not  drink.^ 

'  Latest  Lit.  Essays,  I,  53. 


SYMPOSIUM  VII 

THE    DOCTRINE    OF    FORMAL    DISCIPLINE    IN    THE    LIGHT   OF 
CONTEMPORARY   PSYCHOi^OGY 

I.    THE  DOCTRINE  OF  FORMAL  DISCIPLINE  IN  THE 

LIGHT  OF  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  GENERAL 

PSYCHOLOGY 

JAMES  ROWLAND  ANGELL 
University  of  Chicago 

It  was  not  so  very  long  ago  that  the  recalcitrant  small 
boy  who  objected  to  the  study  of  the  classics  or  of  mathe- 
matics was  urged  to  accept  his  fate  gracefully  on  the 
ground  that,  however  unpleasant  the  process,  he  was 
acquiring  mental  discipline  which  would  stand  him  in 
good  stead  whenever  later  in  life  he  had  some  especially 
hard  intellectual  task  to  face.  The  skepticism  with 
which  this  doctrine  was  always  greeted  by  the  victim 
has  in  recent  years  found  an  echo  in  the  heretical  creed 
of  certain  pedagogical  radicals,  who  have  dared  to  pro- 
claim in  high  places  that  the  formal  discipline  cult  was 
founded  on  a  myth,  and  that  the  educational  value  of  a 
study  is  measured  directly  by  its  intrinsic  worth  and  not 
by  its  indirect  gymnastic  qualities.  It  is  our  business 
today  to  determine,  if  possible,  how  far  this  iconoclastic 
reaction  is  justified. 

The  problem  raised  by  the  doctrine  of  formal  discipline 
or,  as  it  might  more  justly  be  called,  "general  discipline," 
falls  into  two  main  divisions,  one  subordinate  to  the  other : 
(I)  Does  the  serious  pursuit  of  any  study  whatsoever 
leave  the  mind  better  able  than  it  was  before  to  cope 
with   every   other   study?     Stated   otherwise,    is   every 

344 


Formal  Discipline  345 

intellectual  undertaking  rendered  materially  easier  or 
more  efficient  by  virtue  of  previous  intellectual  training, 
regardless  of  the  material  employed  for  such  training? 
(2)  Assuming  an  affirmative  answer  to  the  first  question, 
are  there  specific  studies  (e.g.,  the  classics)  which  are 
peculiarly  valuable  in  this  regard;  or  is  any  study  (e.g., 
literary  criticism)  honestly  pursued  as  valuable  as  any 
other  (e.g.,  physics)?  In  short,  does  the  merit  consist 
in  the  mere  drill  given  by  the  very  fact  of  persistent  con- 
centration, or  is  there  some  residual  value  in  the  character 
of  the  subject-matter  studied? 

There  are  questions  which — theoretically,  at  least — 
are  capable  of  something  approaching  an  empirical  and 
experimental  solution,  and  whenever  such  a  solution  is 
feasible,  mere  theorizing  is  impertinent.  I  regard  the 
appeal  to  the  general  principles  of  psychology  with  which 
our  program  begins  as  justified,  chiefly  if  not  wholly,  by 
the  possibility  of  gaining  from  this  source  a  certain 
orientation  for  the  entire  subject.  Sundry  details,  already 
in  part  experientially  determined,  will  be  discussed  by 
my  colleagues  on  the  program.  Let  us  consider  the 
psychological  question  raised  by  the  first  problem  men- 
tioned: i.e.,  does  the  conscientious  pursuit  of  any  intel- 
lectual occupation  result  in  rendering  the  mind  more 
efficient  in  all  other  lines  of  work?  The  limitations  of 
time  forbid  any  attempt  to  discuss  adequately  the  second 
question. 

We  may  at  the  outset  clear  the  deck  of  certain  possible 
grounds  of  misapprehension.  That  the  higher  branches 
of  a  study  like  algebra  are  both  logically  and  psychologi- 
cally dependent  upon  the  previous  mastery  of  their 
elementary  features  is  a  truism  which  requires  no  debate 
and  ought  to  introduce  no  confusion  into  our  delilxTa- 


346  Humanistic  Studies 

tions.  Similarly,  the  fact  that  certain  studies  like 
physics  make  use  of  material  borrowed  from  other  dis- 
ciplines like  mathematics  is  notorious,  and  again  requires 
no  discussion  and  should  occasion  no  ambiguity.  Evi- 
dently our  essential  problem  does  not  have  to  do  with 
the  transfer  from  one  region  to  another  of  specific  infor- 
mation useful  in  two  or  more  fields.  The  crucial  question 
is  whether  studies  or  occupations  which  have  few  or  no 
demonstrable  points  of  contact  are  reciprocally  beneficial 
in  the  sense  that  the  mastery  of  one  will  facilitate  the 
mastery  of  any  of  the  others.  The  issue  concerns  the 
transfer  of  an  alleged  capacity  for  achievement  in  general 
from  a  special  field  in  which  it  was  gained  to  all  other 
fields,  however  different  from  the  first.  With  this  dis- 
tinction in  mind  we  may  remark  certain  of  the  psychologi- 
cal considerations  which  are  to  be  urged  pro  and  con 
in  the  matter.^ 

Whatever  disadvantages  may  ensue  from  such  a  pro- 
cedure, we  shall  at  least  insure  getting  fairly  into  the  middle 
of  our  subject  if  we  take  it  up  from  the  side  of  habit. 

•  The  old-fashioned  view  of  the  formal  disciplines  rested  in  fact, 
if  not  in  theory,  on  the  foundation  of  the  so-called  faculty  psychology. 
This  involves  a  conception  of  the  mind  as  made  up  of  a  number  of  dis- 
tinct organs,  so  to  speak,  which  can  be  exercised  separately  or  conjointly. 
A  training  of  memory  would  consequently  train  that  faculty  for  any  use. 
Similarly  a  training  of  reasoning  would  leave  that  faculty  in  improved 
form  for  any  use  to  which  one  might  put  it.  Contemporary  psychology 
has  little  patience  with  this  conception,  and,  so  far  from  recognizing 
such  a  thing  as  memory  in  general,  it  urges  with  seemingly  conclusive 
force  that  we  have  many  different  sorts  of  memory,  one  for  visual  objects, 
one  for  sounds,  etc.  Moreover,  nothing  seems  more  certain  than  that 
one  or  more  of  these  forms  in  which  we  employ  memory  may  in  a  given  " 
individual  be  highly  developed  and  extremely  accurate,  while  the  other 
forms  are  no  better  than  the  average,  or  even  considerably  below  this 
average.  It  should  not  be  assumed,  however,  that  because  the  faculty 
psychology  is  exploded,  therefore  the  inferences  based  upon  it  are  all 
essentially  erroneous.  They  may  have  other  foundations  than  those 
on  which  they  were  supposed  to  rest. 


Formal  Discipline  347 

The  term  habit  is  used  loosely  in  psychology  to  designate 
the  fact  that  muscular  movements  tend  to  be  made  in 
the  same  way  again  and  again  in  response  to  the  same 
stimulations.  The  neural  energy  liberated  by  the 
stimulus  is  discharged  over  a  relatively  fixed  nervous 
pathway  into  a  group  of  muscles  by  whose  contraction 
some  appropriate  consequence  follows.  Skating,  swim- 
ming, and  bicycle  riding  may  serve  to  demonstrate  the 
sort  of  thing  we  have  in  mind.  To  begin  with,  the  con- 
necting of  stimulation  and  response  requires  conscious 
guidance;  it  has  to  be  learned  and  is,  as  we  say,  intelli- 
gent. After  the  act  has  been  repeated  a  number  of  times, 
conscious  control  tends  to  fall  away  and  leaves  in  its 
place  a  condition  closely  comparable  to  a  reflex  act,  in 
which  an  appropriate  movement  is  made  in  response  to  a 
stimulus  without  the  interposition  of  consciousness. 

Now  working  on  the  foundation  of  this  idea  of  habit, 
it  has  sometimes  been  maintained  that  all  habits  are 
specific,  that  we  acquire  dexterity  in  this  or  that  special 
activity,  and  that  no  habit  can  be  generalized  so  as  to 
fit  a  miscellaneous  set  of  conditions.  Ergo,  it  is  argued, 
no  formal  discipline  can  have  the  value  claimed  for  it, 
because  what  we  gain  from  such  training  is  specific 
habits  of  performing  certain  limited  groups  of  acts  in 
certain  definite  ways.  Only  on  the  improbable  assump- 
tion that  the  same  groups  of  acts  can  l)e  taken  up  bodily 
and  transplanted  substantially  unmodified,  can  the 
formal  discipline  doctrine  be  justified.  Before  we  under- 
take to  pass  judgment  on  this  assertion  let  us  examine 
some  of  the  forms  in  which  habit  is  actually  manifested. 

We  may  roughly  divide  our  habitual  reactions  into 
three  groups,  groups  which  are  frankly  arbitrary,  but 
which  will  reasonably  serve  the  practical  purposes  of  our 


348  Humanistic  Studies 

present  business.  There  is  (1)  the  sort  of  things  to  which 
the  term  is  most  often  applied  and  to  which  the  charac- 
terizations of  a  few  moments  ago  are  most  germane: 
i.e.,  motor  activities,  in  which  the  significant  feature  is 
some  change  brought  about  by  the  movement  in  the 
physical  world.  Walking,  running,  talking,  and  writing 
may  illustrate  this  group.  Here  the  important  thing  is 
the  overt  external  result  of  the  act;  the  distance  traversed, 
the  word  spoken  or  written,  and  so  on.  Next  (2)  may 
be  mentioned  habitual  acts  in  which  the  purport  of  the 
act  is  to  be  found  not  in  the  mere  external  result,  but  in 
some  sensation  which  the  act  facilitates,  emphasizes,  or 
renders  possible.  Here  belong  the  habitual  accommo- 
datory  movements  by  which  we  focalize  our  sense  organs 
on  stimuli  to  which  we  wish  to  attend.  I  turn  my  head 
to  see  an  interesting  object.  I  turn  it  in  quite  a  different 
manner  to  hear  the  indistinct  speaker.  I  give  it  still 
another  shift,  accompanied  by  certain  accessory  inspira- 
tory movements,  if  I  wish  to  get  the  full  fragrance  of  a 
bunch  of  violets,  etc.  All  these  sensory  activities  involve 
motor  accommodations  of  the  habit  variety:  i.e.,  effi- 
cient muscular  acts  involving  at  present  little  or  no 
conscious  guidance.  (3)  Lastly,  there  are  certain  idea- 
tional processes  to  which  psychologists  are  sometimes 
hesitant  to  apply  the  term  habit,  because  of  the  apparent 
absence  of  motor  elements  in  some  of  them,  but  which 
certainly  deserve  it.  The  boy  learning  to  use  the  multi- 
plication table  illustrates  the  point.  As  he  becomes 
more  and  more  expert,  his  mind  executes  arithmetical 
operations  more  and  more  automatically,  until  finally, 
perhaps,  here  as  elsewhere,  the  activity  becomes  essen- 
tially reflex. 

The  term   "habit  of   thought"    is   applied   to   other 


Formal  Discipline  349 

forms  of  intellectual  procedure  with  the  intent  sometimes 
to  designate  certain  sentiments  and  prejudices,  or  again, 
to  indicate  that  which  is  more  nearly  relevant  to  the 
present  discussion:  i.e.,  one's  general  methods  of  attack- 
ing a  subject,  the  technique  of  one's  thinking.  The 
intellectual  method  which  one  acquires  after  a  certain 
period  of  discipline  in  any  field  of  thought — e.g.,  history, 
literature,  economics,  or  commerce — will  illustrate  the 
case.  One  gets  into  a  manner  of  deahng  with  such 
problems  and  bringing  certain  considerations  to  bear 
upon  them  which  esssentially  merits  the  term  habit, 
although  the  operation  may  be  considerably  less  mechani- 
cal and  inflexible  than  is  the  case  in  the  ordinary  overt 
motor  types  of  habits.  Individual  A  always  hunts  for 
the  details  of  his  problem.  Individual  B  has  no  interest 
in  details,  but  always  seeks  at  once  the  general  bearings 
of  the  case.  Individual  C  invariably  lays  out  a  systematic 
plan  of  campaign  and  follows  it  to  the  bitter  end.  Indi- 
vidual D  dips  in  anywhere  and  continues  to  dip  without 
reference  to  any  scheme  of  action.  These  illustrations 
may  serve  to  make  clear  the  point.  Now  on  the  basis  of 
this  cursory  examination  of  certain  typical  manifestations 
of  habit,  let  us  consider  the  probabilities  as  regards  the 
effects  of  general  training,  or  the  carrying  over  of  facility 
from  one  sort  of  habit  to  another. 

One  kind  of  process  which  certainly  goes  on  all  the 
time,  and  which  may  have  a  remote  bearing  on  the  general 
point  at  issue,  is  the  incorporation  of  smaller  habits  in 
larger  habit  groups.  The  child  in  learning  to  write  has 
at  first  to  give  all  his  energy  to  the  mere  grasping  and 
guiding  of  the  pen.  As  dexterity  is  gained,  the  move- 
ment gradually  comes  to  take  care  of  itself  and  gets 
incorporated  in  another  and  larger  co-ordination:    i.e., 


350  Humanistic  Studies 

the  spelling-and-writing  co-ordination.  This  in  turn 
gets  taken  up  into  a  "paragraph-construction  habit," 
which  in  its  own  turn  may  be  swallowed  up  by  the  chapter, 
article,  or  section  habit.  Not  that  this  account  neces- 
sarily follows  any  unchanging  chronological  sequence  or 
is  true  of  all  persons,  but  that  it  illustrates  what  is  gener- 
ally true  all  along  the  line:  i.e.,  that  specific  habits  are 
constantly  merged  with  other  specific  habits  to  furnish 
forth  larger  and  more  complex  co-ordinations.  This  is 
true  of  each  of  the  three  forms  of  habit  which  we  have 
distinguished,  and  illustrations  will  readily  suggest 
themselves.  Evidently  it  might  well  often  occur  that 
a  habit  acquired  in  some  special  study  should  find  a  place 
in  a  larger  group  of  habits  apparently  quite  dis- 
connected from  the  study.  This  is  peculiarly  true,  it 
may  be  added,  of  all  the  common  studies  of  the  elemen- 
tary school. 

It  seems  clear,  too,  that  habits  closely  akin  to  one 
another  may  readily  reinforce  each  other  in  a  practical 
way,  even  though  the  literal  fact  should  prove  to  be  that 
one  or  other  is  slightly  modified  in  this  case,  rather  than 
merely  reinforced.  For  instance,  a  boy  who  has  learned 
to  play  baseball  and  to  judge  accurately  the  position  of 
a  ball  in  the  air,  has  a  large  part  of  the  difficulty  of  certain 
strokes  in  tennis  already  conquered,  despite  the  fact 
that  the  position  which  he  must  assume  to  meet  the  ball 
in  the  two  cases  is  somewhat  different.  Here  again 
we  should  on  examination  find  that  all  our  classes  of 
habit  would  furnish  illustrations  of  the  principle. 

On  the  other  hand,  certain  habits  are  apparently 
inimical  to  certain  others.  In  a  general  way  we  recog- 
nize this  when  we  lay  stress  on  the  avoidance  of  con- 
tracting "bad  habits"  at  the  outset  of  any  new  under- 


Formal  Discipline  351 

taking.  Such  habits  may  be  bad  in  the  conventional 
moral  sense,  or  merely  in  the  technical  sense  that  they 
limit  efficiency.  But  in  either  case  we  feel  such  habits 
to  be  not  only  inherently  undesirable,  but  also  a  menace 
to  the  opposed  good  habits  and  an  added  difficulty  in 
the  securing  of  the  latter.  Apart,  however,  entirely 
from  the  question  of  bad  habits,  so-called,  there  seems 
to  be  no  doubt  that  certain  habits,  if  they  become 
thoroughly  ingrained,  may  go  far  to  incapacitate  their 
possessor  from  contracting  in  an  effective  way  certain 
other  kinds  of  habits.  One  who  has  learned  to  drive 
spikes  wdth  a  sledge  hammer  will  probably  find  it  more 
difficult  to  learn  to  execute  fine  embroidery  than  would 
have  been  the  case  had  he  not  received  the  sledge  practice 
and  contracted  the  sledge  habit.  Similarly,  one  who 
has  learned  to  concentrate  altogether  on  the  meaning 
of  the  printed  page,  and  especially  one  who  has  learned 
to  combine  this  capacity  with  great  rapidity  of  reading, 
finds  it  extremely  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  read  proof 
accurately.  And  conversely,  it  may  be  doubted  if  any 
first-class  proof-reader  ever  succeeds  in  reading  very 
rapidl}'  and  at  the  same  time  with  understanding.  Atten- 
tion has  to  be  differently  directed  to  achieve  the  two  ends. 

That  our  tastes  and  capacities  rapidly  become  limited 
to  those  which  we  choose  to  cultivate  is  of  course  a  fact 
famihar  in  literature  as  well  as  in  common  life;  but  as 
this  fact  has  a  possible  explanation  somewhat  irrelevant 
to  our  topic,  we  may  pass  it  by  without  further  comment. 

In  academic  life  what  is  so  common  as  to  observe 
that  men  who  have  confined  themselves  assiduously  to 
some  one  field  of  intellectual  endeavor  become  largely 
incapable  of  entering  into  other  fields  of  interest?  It 
is  not  simply  that  their  tastes  rebel  at  the  attempt.     'J'he 


352  Humanistic  Studies 

machinery  of  their  minds  has  lost  a  certain  flexibility 
which  possibly  was  once  possessed.  All  of  which  seems 
to  show  that  expertness  in  specific  directions  instead  of 
carrying  with  it  unmitigated  blessings  may  be  purchased 
at  a  very  great  price,  the  price  of  efficiency  in  other 
important  directions.  It  must  be  frankly  confessed, 
however,  that  such  instances  are  always  ambiguous  in 
the  form  in  which  we  meet  them  in  ordinary  experience, 
because  we  have  no  reliable  means  of  determining  how 
far  the  outcome  is  due  to  native  limitation  of  talent,  or 
to  the  accidents  of  environment,  and  how  much  is  justly 
attributable  to  the  sheer  undiluted  effects  of  the  special 
form  of  intellectual  discipline  pursued. 

This  brings  us  fairly  to  the  question  whether  there 
are  any  generalized  habits?  Or,  are  all  habits  essen- 
tially specific  ?  In  the  habits  by  which  we  accommodate 
our  sense  organs  to  things  to  which  we  wish  to  attend, 
the  process  is  apparently  highly  specific,  and  any  gain  in 
the  efficiency  with  which  we  use  one  sense  organ,  say  the 
eye,  resulting  from  the  use  of  another,  say  the  ear,  must 
spring  from  some  central  factor  common  to  the  use  of 
the  two,  of  which  no  mention  has  as  yet  been  made. 
To  this  hypothetical  factor  we  shall  refer  again  in  a 
moment.  Similarly,  the  habits  which  consist  in  effective 
manipulations  of  external  objects  have  for  the  most  part 
a  highly  specific  character.  One  who  has  learned  to 
hammer  skilfully  can  drive  nails  or  tacks  with  equal 
deftness,  perhaps,  but  sawing  requires  a  quite  different 
set  of  co-ordinations,  and  planing  still  another.  Whether 
such  habits  will,  on  the  whole,  reinforce  or  inhibit  one 
another  can  only  be  determined  by  actual  test.  In  the 
intellectual  range  of  habits  we  meet  the  most  compli- 
cated case,  and  this  brings  us  to  the  part  played  by 


Formal  Discipline  353 

attention  and  ideal  control  in  all  these  cases.  Personally 
I  am  disposed  to  believe  that  the  most  important  elements 
in  the  whole  situation  before  us  are  capable  of  state- 
ment in  terms  of  attention. 

Leaving  aside  for  the  present  purposes  all  more  subtle 
meanings,  I  shall  intend  by  the  word  "attention"  the 
fact  of  mental  concentration.  We  may  accept  for  our 
present  practical  interests  a  common  psychological  dis- 
tinction between  sensory  and  ideational  attention.  In 
the  one  case,  the  mind  is  concentrated  on  some  sense 
process;  in  the  other,  on  some  idea  or  train  of  ideas. 
Evidently  there  will  be  at  least  as  many  subordinate 
forms  of  sensory  attention  as  there  are  sense  organs. 
As  we  remarked  a  few  lines  above,  when  we  attend  to 
a  sound,  our  attitude  is  quite  different  from  that  which 
we  assume  when  attending  to  a  light,  and  both  differ 
from  the  attitude  of  attention  to  an  odor.  There  is 
mental  concentration  in  each  case,  and  yet  the  acts  are 
in  the  main  quite  distinct  from  one  another.  Similarly, 
in  instances  of  ideational  attention,  despite  the  common 
characteristic  of  concentration,  there  will  be  some  differ- 
ence in  the  process  as  a  whole,  depending  on  whether  we 
are  calling  into  mind  memory  images  of  sound,  or  of 
things  seen,  or  are  reasoning  out  some  algebraic  abstruse- 
ness  which  may  chance  to  be  teasing  the  mind. 

Now,  so  far  as  these  several  forms  of  attention  have 
divergent  elements  in  them,  and  certainly  there  are  many 
such  divergences  both  of  sensory  content  and  of  motor 
attitude,  we  shall  hardly  be  entitled  to  look  for  beneficial 
effects  in  the  use  of  one  form  of  attention  as  a  result  of 
discipline  in  another  form  of  it.  So  far  as  the  two  activi- 
ties are  different,  it  is  difficult  to  see  why  a  training  in 
tone   discrimination    should    produce   a   beneficial    effect 


354  Humanistic  Studies 

upon  the  discrimination  of  shades  of  color.^  But  if  we 
look  more  closely  at  the  facts  we  shall  see  that  there 
are  certain  factors  common  to  all  these  cases  which  have 
not  been  mentioned. 

The  persistent  and  voluntarily  directed  use  of  atten- 
tion, especially  when  the  subject  attended  to  is  lacking 
in  interest,  speedily  becomes  acutely  distasteful.  Vol- 
untary attention  involves  some  strain  and  this  strain,  if 
long  continued,  is  certain  to  become  unpleasant.  We 
first  become  bored,  then  restless,  and  finally  find  the 
thing  intolerable  and  abandon  it.  Now,  no  small  part 
of  the  discipline  which  comes  from  the  effortful  use  of 
attention  in  any  direction  and  on  any  topic  is  to  be  found 
in  the  habituation  which  is  afforded  in  neglecting  or 
otherwise  suppressing  unpleasant  or  distracting  sensa- 
tions. We  learn  to  "stand  it,"  in  short.  This  fact  has 
been  pointed  out  at  times  by  writers  on  these  topics, 
but  it  is  rarely  given  the  importance  which  it  properly 
deserves.  Anyone  can  attend  to  things  which  interest 
or  please  him  so  long  as  his  physical  strength  holds  out. 
But  to  attend  in  the  face  of  difficulties  which  are  not 
entertaining  is  distinctly  an  acquired  taste,  one  to  which 
children  and  primitive  peoples  always  strenuously  object. 
From  this  point  of  view  it  may  well  be  that  such  studies 
as  the  classics  and  certain  forms  of  mathematics  have  a 
peculiar  value  in  affording  the  maximum  of  unpleasant- 
ness diluted  with  a  minimum  of  native  interest,  so  that  a 
student  who  learns  to  tolerate  prolonged  attending  to 
their  intricacies  may  find  almost  any  other  undertaking 
by  contrast  easy  and  grateful.  The  actual  mental 
mechanism  by  which  this  intellectual  and  moral  accli- 

>  That  such  a  transfer  of  training  may  occur,  see  the  interesting 
paper  by  Coover  and  F.  Angell,  "General  Practice  Effect  of  Special 
Exercise,"  Amer.  Jour,  of  Psychology  (1907),  p.  328. 


Formal  Discipline  355 

matization  is  secured,  is  extremely  interesting,  but  we 
cannot  pause  to  discuss  it.  Certain  it  is  that  something  of 
the  sort  occurs  and  that  it  is  an  acquirement  which  may 
presumably  be  carried  over  from  one  type  of  occupation 
to  another.  If  each  form  of  effortful  occupation  had  a 
wholly  unique  type  of  discomfort  attached  to  it,  this 
inference  might  be  challenged.  But  such  does  not  seem 
to  be  the  case. 

Again  it  is  held  by  certain  psychologists  that,  although 
each  form  of  sensory  and  ideational  attention  involves 
a  special  and  peculiar  motor  attitude  not  found  in  any 
other  form  in  which  attention  may  be  exercised,  it  is 
nevertheless  true  that  there  is  a  general  attitude  on  which 
each  of  these  special  forms  is  grafted  which  remains  as  a 
constant  background  for  all.  Of  course  if  this  contention 
be  true,  and  I  am  disposed  both  on  theoretical  and  on 
experimental  grounds  to  think  that  it  is,  there  would  be 
some  matrix  common  to  all  acts  of  attention,  and  any 
development  whatever  would  affect  this  central  core  in 
some  degree. 

Although  we  are  here  on  distinctly  speculative  ground, 
there  is  at  least  some  reason  to  think  that  the  frontal 
lobes  of  the  cerebral  cortex  are  employed  in  all  voluntary 
attention  in  a  way  which  may  afford  a  considerable 
amount  of  common  cerebral  action  in  many  forms  of 
attentive  process,  even  though  the  community  of  ele- 
ments is  by  no  means  rigidly  fixed  and  absolute. 

Allied  to  this  physiological  consideration  and,  accord- 
ing to  certain  psychologists,  belonging  in  the  realm  of 
pure  postulate,  is  the  doctrine  that  the  mind  is  a  unit 
and  that  all  its  processes  must  affect  one  another  cillier 
positively  or  negatively.  On  the  whole,  it  api)('ars  that 
the  general  theory  of  attention  would  lead  us  to  look  lor 


356  Humanistic  Studies 

some  effect,  whether  advantageous  or  disadvantageous, 
on  every  intellectual  undertaking  as  a  result  of  every 
other  previous  mental  activity. 

The  approach  to  our  problem  from  the  side  of  attention 
enables  us  to  attain  an  interesting  and  somewhat  instruct- 
ive sidelight  on  certain  familiar  educational  tenets. 
Much  is  said  about  the  necessity  of  teaching  accuracy 
in  observation.  Clearly  this  leads  us  back  at  once  to 
the  various  forms  of  sensory  attention  previously  noticed. 
A  boy  taught  to  remark  carefully  what  he  sees,  whether 
in  the  open  field  or  under  the  microscope,  may  or  may  not 
learn  to  distinguish  the  relations  of  musical  tones  more 
readily  than  if  he  had  not  had  the  training  for  his  optical 
attention.  On  the  basis  of  the  consideration  just  can- 
vassed, we  should  look  even  in  this  case  for  some  gain, 
however  slight,  and  there  is  some  experimental  evidence 
to  justify  this  expectation,  as  has  already  been  mentioned. 
Moreover,  we  have  to  remember  that  the  gain  on  the 
score  of  discipline  to  attention  may  be  more  than  offset 
by  the  mutually  inhibitory  character  of  the  habits 
involved  in  the  two  activities,  so  that  loss  and  not  gain 
would  appear  as  the  net  result  of  certain  combinations 
of  this  kind.  But,  in  any  event,  nothing  is  more  certain 
than  that  the  boy's  auditory  attention  must  itself  receive 
separate  training  if  it  is  ever  to  be  of  much  value.  Train- 
ing in  observation,  then,  can  never  become  widely  effect- 
ive unless  it  embraces  all  the  important  forms  of  sense 
activity. 

Memory  also  shares  with  "accuracy  of  observation" 
the  solicitude  so  often  expressed  as  to  modern  educa- 
tional methods  and  results.  Few  mental  properties 
have  been  so  widely  supposed  to  profit  by  general  training 
as    memory.     Nevertheless,    certain    distinguished .  psy- 


Formal  Discipline  357 

chologists  have  not  hesitated  to  announce  that  the  devices 
commonly  employed  to  secure  this  discipline  were  worth- 
less. Other  psychologists,  hardly  less  distinguished, 
have  urged  that  the  evidence  advanced  by  the  defenders 
of  this  doctrine  was  inconclusive ;  and  my  colleagues  upon 
the  program  will  no  doubt  call  to  your  attention  some 
interesting  experiments  directed  to  solving  this  puzzle. 
We  may  notice,  however,  that  memory  is  a  function  of 
concentrated  attention  to  the  extent  at  least  that,  other 
things  equal,  the  person  who  possesses  the  most  concen- 
tration of  attention  will  be  found  most  tenacious  of  mate- 
rial learned  and  most  prompt  and  effective  in  commanding 
this  material  when  wanted.  This  consideration  would 
lead  us  to  expect  that  almost  any  training  of  memory 
would  show  some  detectable  effect  in  any  subsequent 
use  of  the  memory  processes.  Recent  experiments  indi- 
cate the  correctness  of  this  anticipation. 

Again  it  is  said  that  education  ought  to  train  one's 
ability  to  execute  analyses,  to  make  accurate  inferences, 
and  to  detect  essential  relations,  as  though  analyses  and 
inferences  and  relations  were  names  for  perfectly  homo- 
geneous, uniform  processes.  The  futility  of  this  con- 
ception in  the  form  in  which  it  is  often  advocated  requires 
no  psychology  more  recondite  than  that  afforded  by 
common  observation  and  a  very  modest  type  of  common 
sense.  If  the  world  were  built  in  a  neat  snug-fitting 
box,  with  all  parts  interchangeable,  the  scheme  ought 
to  work  admirably.  Unhappily  the  type  of  analysis  and 
inference  which  is  valid  in  mathematics,  for  instan(;e,  is 
practically  very  different  from  that  which  is  valid  in 
linguistics  and  history.  A  similar  discontimiity  of 
inferential  procedure  marks  off  from  one  another  sundry 
other   fields   of   knowledge.     Surely   from   this   side   the 


358  Humanistic  Studies 

most  that  educational  doctrine  can  ask  or  urge  is  that 
the  mind  shall  be  brought  into  intimate  contact  with 
all  the  great  characteristic  divisions  of  human  thought 
and  that  the  processes  in  each  of  these  domains  shall  be 
made  familiar.  If  one  has  thus  mastered  the  several 
modes  of  procedure  needful  in  these  main  divisions  of 
the  world  of  mind,  one  is  at  least  armed  against  the 
inevitable  errors  of  complete  ignorance  and  one  is  fairly 
started  on  the  path  to  specialized  proficiency.  Psy- 
chologically, of  course,  the  various  forms  of  reasoning 
process  reduce  to  one  or  two  simple  types  with  their 
variants.  But  practically,  the  content  of  the  ideas  with 
which  thought  has  to  deal  is  often  so  diverse  as  to  render 
discipline  gained  on  this  score  in  one  direction  of  only 
the  most  remote  consequence  in  another. 

It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  a  very  real  intellectual 
advantage  is  gained  from  any  well-organized  study,  in 
that  one  is  given  a  vivid  illustration,  which  may  prove 
contagious  if  the  teaching  be  well  done,  of  the  possibilities 
of  method  and  technique  in  thinking.  The  leverage 
given  by  system  and  organization  is  thus  made  clear. 
The  precise  system  appropriate  to  a  given  problem  may, 
however,  be  quite  inadequate  to  some  other  problem, 
so  that  the  profit  on  this  score  is  not  without  its  limitation. 

This  last  point  leads  to  another  which  is  in  essence, 
perhaps,  but  a  restatement.  It  has  been  maintained 
that,  after  all,  the  great  advantage  in  any  serious  study 
— the  formal  disciplines  as  well  as  others — is  in  the 
creation  therefrom  of  certain  ideals  which  are  as  such 
applicable  to  almost  any  situation.  Such  ideals  are 
thoroughness,  accuracy,  system,  and  the  like.  I  believe 
this  contention  may  be  granted  without  argument,  but 
it  leaves  us,  as  in  the  two  preceding  cases,  quite  uncertain 


Formal  Discipline  359 

as  to  the  exact  manner  in  which  such  an  ideal  as  ''system," 
say,  could  be  transplanted  from  chemistry  to  politics 
and  literature.  Even  if  the  ideal  really  migrated,  it 
would  in  many  cases  be  necessary  to  discover  from  new 
experience  just  how  it  applied  in  the  novel  surroundings. 

SUMMARY 

In  reply  to  our  first  question — i.e.,  whether  the 
serious  pursuit  of  any  study  whatever  may  be  expected 
to  result  in  benefits  for  the  subsequent  pursuit  of  any 
other  study — our  general  psychological  principles  lead 
us  to  the  following  conclusions,  which  specific  experi- 
ment must  confirm  or  disprove:  (1)  Certain  habits  gained 
in  the  mastery  of  one  study  may  be  appropriated  directly 
in  another:  (2)  They  may  be  slightly  modified  before 
such  application  and  still  show  for  their  possessor  a  great 
gain  as  compared  with  the  individual  who  has  to  start 
from  the  beginning.  (3)  These  habits  may  be  incor- 
porated in  larger  habit  groups,  either  with  or  without 
slight  modification.  (4)  They  may  tend  to  impede 
certain  antagonistic  habits  and  in  turn  be  impeded  by 
other  previously  extant  and  inhibitory  habits.  (5)  But 
in  all  these  cases,  the  instances  of  inhibition  as  well  as 
those  of  reinforcement  and  incorporation,  it  seems 
probable  that  a  certain  gain  in  the  power  to  use  and 
sustain  attention  will  accrue  from  any  purposeful  and 
persistent  intellectual  application.  This  result  may  be 
expected  to  come  in  part  from  the  suppressing  or  disre- 
garding of  disagreeable  and  distracting  sensations,  and 
in  part  from  the  discipline  afforded  to  the  common 
element  in  all  acts  of  attention,  whether  this  common 
element  be  found  in  some  conditions  of  the  cerebral  cortex, 
or   in   some   motor   conditions   which   are   essential   con- 


300  Humanistic  Studies 

eomitants  ot  all  attentive  attitudes.  This  principle  prob- 
ably holds  true  in  memory,  in  reasoning,  in  observation, 
and  in  all  forms  ot  mental  activity  which  common  thought 
and  language  distinguish.  (6)  What  subjects  best 
reinforce  one  another;  what  ones  most  inevitably  conflict 
with  one  another;  whether  these  relations  are  dependent 
upon  the  mode  of  presentation,  rather  than  upon  the 
subject-matter  itself;  these  and  other  similar  questions, 
too  numerous  to  point  out,  must  one  and  all  be  answered 
by  experiment  and  experience.  Dogmatism  is  wholly 
impossible  in  advance  of  such  drastic  and  exhaustive 
investigation. 

Time  and  space  do  not  permit  any  attempt  to  discuss 
the  second  question  which  we  formulated:  i.e.,  whether 
any  particular  studies  possess  a  special  value  for  general 
disciplinary  purposes  ?  It  should,  however,  be  remarked 
that,  strictly  speaking,  there  is  probably  no  such  thing 
as  a  purely  disciplinary  study.  Any  study  is  likely  to 
be  robbed  of  its  good  name  and  labeled  a  formal  disci- 
pline, if  somebody  chances  to  allege  that  it  is  good  for 
something  beside  that  for  which  it  obviously  exists. 
The  implication  of  our  deliberations  would  be  that  every 
study  has  latent  in  it  the  possibilities  of  becoming  to 
some  extent  a  formal  or  general  discipline.  Its  pursuit 
may  effect  intellectual  changes  not  confined  to  the  topic 
with  which  it  is  ostensibly  engaged.  Meantime,  it  seems 
to  be  a  safe  and  conservative  corollary  of  this  doctrine 
that  no  study  should  have  a  place  in  the  curriculum  for 
which  this  general  disciplinary  characteristic  is  the  chief 
recommendation.  Such  advantage  can  probably  be 
gotten  in  some  degree  from  every  study,  and  the  intrinsic 
values  of  each  study  afford  at  present  a  far  safer  criterion 


Formal  Discipline  361 

of  educational  worth  than  any  which  we  can  derive  from 
the  theory  of  formal  disciphne. 


II.     THE  EFFECTS  OF  TRAINING  ON  MEMORY 

W.  B.  PILLSBURY 

University  of  Michigan 

This  topic  is  perhaps  that  one  of  all  the  special  prob- 
lems connected  with  formal  disciphne  that  has  been  most 
frequently  discussed  and  most  thoroughly  investigated. 
It  may,  therefore,  stand  as  a  type  of  the  results  and 
methods  of  experimental  psychology  as  applied  to  the 
more  complicated  problems  of  mind,  although  it  is  per- 
haps not  the  one  in  which  most  agreement  has  been 
attained.  The  oscillation  of  opinion  on  the  topic  is  also 
characteristic  of  the  attitude  toward  the  problem  in 
general.  In  my  discussion  I  shall  endeavor  to  reflect 
the  results  of  theory  and  experiment,  and  shall  make 
an  effort  to  distort  them  as  little  as  possible  by  the  surface 
from  which  they  are  reflected  to  you. 

Three  important  stages  may  be  distinguished  in  the 
development  of  the  theory.  The  first  is  probably  most 
familiar  to  the  popular  mind,  in  fact,  was  the  universal 
assumption  before  the  recent  developments  in  our  knowl- 
edge. It  is  that  there  is  a  single  function  or  faculty  of 
memory,  and  that  any  training  of  that  faculty  must 
have  its  infiuence,  no  matter  to  what  memory  may  be 
applied.  On  this  theory,  training  anywhere  would  be 
effective  everywhere.  Our  problem  vv^ould  be  analogous 
to  the  problem  of  the  physical  culturist,  for  whom  it 
makes  no  difference  what  work  is  done  provided  only 
the  muscles  are  exercised.  The  arms  gain  strength  just 
as  certainly  if  exercised  on  the  pulley  in  the  gymnasium 


362  Humanistic  Studies 

as  if  employed  in  wielding  the  blacksmith's  hammer. 
Were  the  same  analogy  to  hold,  one  could  acquire  a 
good  memory  by  learning  names  from  the  directory  with 
the  same  certainty  as  by  taking  a  college  course. 

As  in  most  matters  of  theory,  violent  statement  gave 
place  to  violent  reaction.  If  for  generations  there  was 
no  question  that  memory  might  be  trained  as  an  arm 
might  be,  and  the  whole  curriculum  was  based  upon  that 
assumption,  when  the  reaction  came  it  was  equally 
extreme.  The  beginnings  of  the  reaction  appeared  with 
the  refutation  of  the  faculty  theory  by  Herbart.  More 
specifically  the  dogma  received  a  blow  when  mental 
pathology,  aided  by  normal  psychology,  discovered  that 
man  had  not  one  memory,  but  many.  It  was  found  that 
there  was  a  memory  for  each  sense,  not  of  course  all 
represented  in  the  same  individual,  but  usually  several 
in  one  individual.  Then,  too,  there  seemed  to  be  special 
memories  for  closely  related  kinds  of  material.  It  was 
found  that  memory  might  be  lost  for  one  part  of  speech, 
not  for  another;  for  one  object  and  not  for  a  closely 
related  one.  If  memories  are  thus  so  distinct  that  one 
may  disappear  and  leave  the  others  unaffected,  it  would 
seem  that  training  one  memory  could  have  no  effect  at 
all  upon  another.  In  this  respect  the  analogy  with 
physical  training  would  assert  that  you  can  no  more 
train  your  memory  for  historical  dates  by  learning  poetry 
than  you  can  train  for  a  race  by  finger  exercises  on  the 
piano.  The  two  memories  would  be  as  distinct  as  the 
two  members  of  the  body. 

This  negative  conclusion  was  reinforced  by  two  other 
considerations:  one,  theoretical;  the  other,  factual. 
In  the  first  place,  there  is  little  analogy  between  training 
the  man  as  a  physical  whole  and  training  memory,  for 


Formal  Discipline  363 

the  same  kind  of  process  is  involved  in  muscular  training 
in  general  as  is  involved  in  each  piece  of  learning.  When 
a  muscle  contracts  there  is  left  behind  as  a  result  of  the 
contraction  an  increased  liability  and  capacity  for  con- 
traction, that  serves  to  strengthen  the  muscle.  Memory 
of  any  kind,  on  the  generally  accepted  theory,  is  the  result 
of  an  entirely  analogous  change  in  a  nerve  cell  upon  any 
excitation.  One  remembers  a  face  because  certain  cells 
in  the  back  of  the  brain  take  on  a  habit  of  acting  as  a 
result  of  seeing  the  face,  and  this  leaves  a  disposition  to 
be  re-excited  whenever  appropriate  occasion  arises. 
And  the  change  in  the  cells  as  a  result  of  some  sensory 
impression  is  assumed  to  be  entirely  analogous  to  the 
change  in  the  muscle  as  the  result  of  action.  You  are 
training  a  memory  whenever  you  receive  a  sensation  in 
exactly  the  same  sense  that  you  train  an  arm  by  con- 
tracting it.  The  problem,  then,  is  not  "Can  you  train 
memory  through  use?"  but  "Can  you  train  one  group 
of  nerve  cells  in  the  brain  by  exercising  other  sets  of  cells 
that  may  or  may  not  be  situated  anywhere  near  them, 
or  that  may  or  may  not  be  functionally  related  to  them  ?  " 
The  factual  considerations  that  tended  to  confirm 
the  conclusion  were  some  actual  experiments  by  Professor 
William  James. ^  He  first  tested  his  memory  by  learning 
some  lines  of  Victor  Hugo's  Satyr.  He  learned  158  lines 
during  eight  days.  This  required  131  5-6  minutes.  He 
then  worked  twenty  minutes  daily  until  he  had  learned 
the  first  book  of  Paradise  Lost.  After  this  training  he 
went  back  to  Victor  Hugo's  poem  and  found  that  158 
additional  lines  divided  as  before  required  151 1  minutes 
for  learning.  There  was,  then,  after  training  a  loss  of 
twenty  minutes'  time  rather  than  a  gain.  Professor 
James  admits,  however,  that  there  was  som(>  (juestioii 

James,  Principles  of  Psychology,  I,  OGO. 


364  Humanistic  Studies 

of  the  validity  of  the  second  test,  because  he  had  been 
considerably  fatigued  by  other  work.  The  test  was 
repeated  by  four  of  his  students  in  approximately  the 
same  way.  Of  these,  two  showed  some  considerable 
gain  as  the  result  of  practice  and  two  showed  no  gain. 
The  results  are  not  so  striking  as  the  conclusion  they 
were  adduced  to  prove.  In  fact,  it  is  a  question  whether 
any  conclusion  at  all  could  be  drawn  from  them  by  a 
conservative  observer.  But  whatever  value  we  may 
assign  to  the  results  themselves,  the  name  and  fame  of 
the  author  and  the  cogency  of  his  arguments  from  gen- 
erally accepted  physiological  theories  carried  great  weight. 
In  fact,  it  may  be  said  that  in  American  psychology,  at 
least,  his  conclusion  that  the  primary  memory  cannot 
be  trained,  but  that  man  is  born  with  a  certain  reten- 
tiveness  that  cannot  be  added  to  or  subtracted  from  by 
taking  thought,  has  been  held  to  practically  without 
exception.  The  only  point  at  which  Professor  James 
would  admit  any  effect  of  training  is  in  acquiring  better 
methods  of  learning,  gaining  capacity  for  picking  out 
the  essentials  of  the  matter  to  be  learned,  and  in  discard- 
ing the  unessentials. 

Down,  then,  to  a  comparatively  recent  time  we  have 
had  two  diametrically  opposed  schools.  Memory  is 
either  a  single  thing  that  can  be  trained  as  a  whole  as  you 
train  a  muscle,  or  it  is  a  capacity  of  a  vast  number  of 
separate  organs  sufficiently  independent  to  have  no 
increase  in  capacity  of  one  affect  the  usefulness  of  any 
other.  Both  of  these  theories  are  logical  deductions  from 
the  assumed  premises,  but  they  are  a  priori  in  character, 
and  have  not  been  confirmed  by  carefully  controlled  ex- 
periment or  observation.  Where  two  sets  of  premises  may 
give  rise  to  such  opposed  conclusions,  we  must  have  re- 


Formal  Discipline  365 

course  either  to  more  accurate  examination  of  the  premises, 
or  to  concrete  facts,  before  it  will  be  possible  to  har- 
monize the  conclusions  or  to  accept  either.  Fortunately, 
more  recent  investigation  seems  to  furnish  both,  and  of 
a  character  to  form  what  may  be  regarded  as  a  compro- 
mise between  the  two  extremes. 

In  beginning  our  discussion  of  the  more  constructive 
work,  it  will  be  necessary  to  distinguish  two  forms  of 
learning  that  follow  laws  that  are  diverse,  or  at  least 
two  forms  that  have  little  to  do  with  each  other.  These 
are  rote  learning  and  learning  of  substance,  or  logical 
learning.  The  two  methods  seem  to  be  in  part  mutually 
exclusive,  or  at  least  independent  one  of  the  other.  One 
may  have  a  well-developed  rote  memory  and  little  or  no 
logical  memory.  At  some  stages  of  development  a  child 
seems  compelled  to  learn  word  for  word  or  not  at  all, 
while  relatively  few  adults  have  an  accurate  memory  for 
anything  more  than  the  meaning  of  what  is  read  or 
heard.  Quite  frequently,  too,  as  one  increases  the  other 
decreases.  This  is  not  a  necessary  relation,  but  from 
common  observation  seems  quite  as  frequent  as  to  have 
both  increase  together.  It  will  be  necessary,  then,  to 
discuss  each  sort  of  memory  separately. 

On  rote  memory  there  has  been  a  large  amount  of 
work  done  in  the  last  two  decades,  work  that  for  the 
most  part  has  not  been  directed  to  our  particular  prob- 
lem for  training  the  memory,  but  which  has,  neverthe- 
less, developed  a  technique  and  established  standards 
of  accuracy  that  were  entirely  lacking  at  the  time  the 
experiments  of  Professor  James  were  made.  In  the 
experiments  great  care  is  taken  to  control  all  possible 
sources  of  error.  The  material  employed  is  usually  lists 
of  nonsense  syllables  that  have  never  been  used  and  so 


3C(i  Humanistic  Studies 

probably  have  never  been  learned,  even  in  part,  before. 
Then  again,  the  syllables  are  exposed  at  perfectly  regular 
intervals  by  an  instrument  that  permits  but  one  to  be 
seen  at  a  time  and  insures  that  each  shall  be  shown  for 
the  same  length  of  time  as  any  other.  A  vast  number 
of  other  apparently  insignificant  details,  that  experience 
has  shown  to  be  important  in  their  effect  upon  learning, 
are  carefully  looked  to  that  no  single  extraneous  factor 
may  come  in  to  obscure  the  results.  It  has  been  noted 
in  nearly  all  experiments  that  have  extended  over  a 
considerable  time  that  the  amount  of  effort  required 
for  learning  became  less  with  practice.  Whatever  the 
measure  used,  it  has  been  found  that  fewer  repetitions 
or  less  time  is  needed  to  perfect  the  learning  process  after 
practice  than  before.  It  was  explained  ordinarily  that 
this  was  due  to  acquiring  familiarity  with  unusual  condi- 
tions of  learning  and  with  the  new  material,  or  at  least 
that  the  practice  would  hold  only  for  material  of  practi- 
cally the  same  kind.  In  1905,  Ebert  and  Meumann^ 
published  from  the  laboratory  of  the  University  of  Zurich 
the  results  of  a  long  investigation  that  had  for  its  chief 
end  the  determination  of  the  effects  of  training  in  learn- 
ing material  of  one  kind  upon  the  capacity  to  learn  mate- 
rial of  the  same  and  different  kinds.  The  investigation 
was  extended  over  a  long  period  of  time,  and  the  effects 
of  the  practice  were  tested  upon  a  sufficient  variety  of 
material  to  leave  but  slight  room  for  doubt  that  the  main 
outlines  of  the  investigation  will  stand  the  test  of  time. 
Eight  subjects  took  part.  Their  memories  were  first 
tested  for  ease  of  learning  different  sorts  of  material,  such 
as  series  of  letters,  numbers,  nonsense  syllables,  words, 
Italian  words,  strophes  of  poetry,  and  selections  of  prose. 

'  Arch.  f.  d.  gesam.  Psych.,  IV,  1. 


Formal  Discipline  367 

They  were  tested  for  retentiveness  on  some  of  the  same 
kind  of  material,  and  in  addition  on  visual  signs  that  had 
no  conventional  meaning.  After  these  tests  had  been 
made,  the  subjects  turned  to  an  investigation  of  a  prob- 
lem in  the  economical  methods  of  learning  that  does  not 
concern  us  here.  In  this  investigation  they  learned 
thirty-two  series  of  nonsense  syllables;  ordinarily  they 
learned  two  series  of  syllables  on  one  day  and  tested  the 
retention  of  two  more.  In  most  cases  this  meant  learn- 
ing four  series  of  twelve  syllables  each  on  each  of  sixteen 
days.  At  the  end  of  this  time  the  first  test  material  was 
relearned  antl  the  facility  of  learning  was  compared 
with  the  original.  After  the  second  cross-section  through 
the  memory  capacity,  there  was  still  another  period  of 
training.  Four  of  the  subjects  were  trained  on  sixteen 
series  of  the  same  material  as  before,  and  four  who  could 
give  more  time  were  subjected  to  the  complete  set  of 
thirty-two  series.  When  these  had  been  finished,  a  final 
test  of  capacity  was  made  that  could  be  compared  with 
the  original  condition  and  with  the  result  obtained  after 
the  first  period  of  practice. 

The  results  fell  out  entirely  in  favor  of  the  view  that 
special  training  gives  a  general  effect.  P^or  every  sub- 
ject there  was  a  progressive  increase  throughout  the 
series  both  in  quickness  of  original  learning  and  in  the 
amount  of  retention.  Not  only  this,  but  the  effect  of 
training  from  learning  nonsense;  syllables  extended  to 
the  other  materials  that  were  used,  and  that  in  pro- 
portion to  the  similarity  of  the  material  to  the  nonsense 
syllables.  The  table  will  show  the  results  in  general 
outline.  It  gives  the  average;  for  the  subjects  on  tlx- 
eleven  different  forms  of  work.  We  may  di\ide  the 
results  into  two  groups:    one  shows  the  effect   of  train- 


368 


Humanistic  Studies 


iiig  on  original  learning;    the  other,   the  effect  of  the 
training  on  retention,  on  the  retentiveness  of  the  memory 
as  measured  by  the  number  of  repetitions  required  for 
relearning  after  the  lapse  of  twenty-four  hours. 
TABLE  I 


First 
Cross- 
Section 

Second 
Cross- 
Section 

Third 
Cross- 
Section 

Percent- 
age of 
Gain 

3  over  2 

Percent- 
age of 
Gain 
3  over  1 

Numbers 

Letters 

Nonsense  syllables. 

Words 

Italian  words 

Poetic  words 

Prose  words 

7 

7.2 

5.2 

5 
15 
17 

8.8 
9.5 
6.2 
7.3 
5.5 

17 

19 

11.2 

11.3 

7.3 

8.8 
6.5 

19 

22 

26 

19.3 

19 

20.5 

18 

12 

16 

59 

58.2 
42 

30 

27 
29 

In  this  table  the  figures  all  indicate  the  number  of 
units  that  could  be  retained  on  one  repetition. 

TABLE  II* 
Average  Number  Seconds  Per  Syllable 


First 
Cross- 
Section 

Second 
Cross- 
Section 

Tliird 
Cross- 
Section 

03  03 

"■3 

©  Co 

Per- 
centage 
of  Gain 
3  over  1 

Learning.  .  .  . 
Relearning  .  . 

'     2.11 
<     0.49 

0.83 
0.27 

0.48 
0.20 

43 
35 

77    ; 

59      \ 

Nonsense  syllables 

Learning .  .  .  . 
Relearning.  . 

!     3.83 
0.68 

2.23 
0.35 

0.90 
0.30 

59.6 
14.3 

76.5/ 
55.9  i 

Optical  symbols 

Learning . . .  . 
Relearning  .  . 

.273 
.056 

.175 
.040 

.108 
.036 

32.8 
10 

60      I 
36      S 

Italian  words 

Learning.  .  .  . 
Relearning  .  . 

.75 
0.14 

0.6 
.08 

0.47 
.07 

21.6 
12.5 

37.3/ 
50      \ 

Lines  of  poetry 

readings  required 

Learning.  .  .  . 
Relearning  . . 

1175 
36 

99 
12 

50      49 
9      25 

71.4) 

75      \ 

20  lines  of  prose 

•  In  this  table  the  figures  indicate  the  average  time  in  seconds  required 
to  learn  each  syllable,  except  in  the  last  instance,  where  the  results  are 
given  in  number  of  readings. 


Formal  Discipline  369 

It  can  be  seen  from  the  tables  that  in  every  case  there 
was  a  gain  in  the  average  performance  of  the  eight 
observers  for  each  kind  of  material  used.  It  will  also 
be  seen  that  there  is  a  tendency  for  the  gain  to  be  greater 
in  material  that  is  most  closely  related  to  that  on  which 
practice  was  obtained.  The  difference  is  not,  however, 
sufficiently  great  to  make  it  at  all  probable  that  rote 
memory  for  any  sort  of  material  would  not  be  increased 
as  a  result  of  practice  in  learning  anything  else.  It  is 
also  a  striking  result  that  the  retentiveness  of  the  memory 
should  be  increased  as  well  as  its  quickness.  It  is  suggest- 
ive of  the  extent  to  which  training  may  go  that  the 
second  period  of  training  should  still  show  a  very  marked 
effect.  Indeed  it  was  the  original  intention  of  the  inves- 
tigators to  continue  practice  until  a  limit  was  reached, 
but  this  did  not  seem  practicable.  The  limit  conjectured 
by  the  authors  was  a  degree  of  training  that  would  permit 
complete  learning  of  the  series  used  at  a  single  repetition. 
There  was  some  difference  in  the  amount  of  training 
between  different  individuals.  This  could  be  traced  in 
large  part  to  the  amount  of  earlier  training.  The  smallest 
amount  of  training  was  shown  by  Professor  Meumann, 
who  has  devoted  a  large  proportion  of  his  time  in  recent 
years  to  learning  nonsense  syllables  and  in  conducting 
investigations  in  memory.  Still  he  did  not  fail  to  show 
some  evidence  of  training  in  most  of  the  tests  that  were 
made. 

Surprising,  too,  are  the  results  of  tests  of  the  persist- 
ence of  the  effects  of  training.  Tests  made  after  the 
lapse  of  from  seventy-five  to  one  hundred  and  fifty-six 
days  of  vacation  showed  that  there  had  been  no  loss  of 
the  training;  in  fact,  in  several  instances  there  hud  been 
an  actual  increase  in  memory  capacity.     If  we  arc  to 


370  Humanistic  Studies 

take  these  results  at  anything  like  their  face  value,  it 
would  seem  that  memory  is  capable  of  being  trained  to 
an  indefinite  degree,  and  that  training  in  one  field  carries 
with  it  training  in  other  related  fields,  but  they  need  not 
be  so  closely  related  as  to  render  it  at  all  likely  that 
training  in  remembering  any  one  sort  of  material  would 
be  entirely  without  effect  in  any  other  field.  This  effect 
of  training,  is  not  transient  apparently,  but  persists,  or 
its  effect  may  even  be  increased  after  the  lapse  of  con- 
siderable time. 

One  criticism  of  the  method  has  been  made  recently 
to  the  effect  that  the  real  gain  was  not  due  to  the  practice 
series  on  different  sorts  of  material,  but  to  the  training 
in  the  same  sort  of  material  in  the  relatively  long  test 
series  used.  To  test  the  amount  of  this  training  Pro- 
fessor Dearborn  of  the  University  of  Chicago  had  several 
people  learn  the  test  series,  wait  during  the  same  period 
that  Meumann's  experimenters  devoted  to  training,  and 
then  take  the  first  and  second  cross-sections.  His  results 
are  not  yet  published,^  but  they  show  in  general  that  the 
larger  part  of  the  effect  that  Meumann  ascribed  to  prac- 
tice on  another  sort  of  material  Avas  really  due  to  the 
training  acquired  in  the  earlier  tests  with  the  same 
material.  There  is  still  from  2  to  47  per  cent  that  may 
be  ascribed  to  transfer  of  training  from  one  sort  of  material 
to  another  as  compared  with  the  35  to  75  per  cent  that 
Meumann   obtained.     This   is   sufficient   to   justify   the 

'  Through  the  kindness  of  Professor  Dearborn  I  am  enabled  to  give 
in  advance  of  publication  a  table  of  comparative  results.  The  experi- 
ments reported  in  the  table  are  made  by  the  same  methods  used  by 
Ebert  and  Meumann  except  that  the  subjects  rested  while  Ebert's 
and  Meumann's  practiced.  The  column  headed  "E.  and  M."  gives 
the  values  for  the  percentage  of  improvement  at  the  third  test  as  com- 
pared with  first  as  in  Tables  I  and  II  above;  the  next  column  (D.)  the 
improvement  of  Dearborn's  subjects  without  other  training  than  was 
afforded    by    the    tests    themselves,    while    the  third    column    (E.   and 


Formal  Discipline 


371 


doctrine  of  transfer  of  training  in  memor}',  although  it 
makes  such  transfer  very  much  less  important  than 
Meumann  assumed  from  his  results. 

It  might  be  objected  that  training  of  this  kind  is  imprac- 
ticable and  that  the  methods  of  training,  the  materials 
used,  and  the  methods  of  testing  are  so  different  in  char- 
acter from  those  that  would  be  used  in  practice  that  it 
is  possible  to  draw  no  conclusions  from  them  to  apply 
to  the  fields  where  we  are  really  interested  in  producing 
results.  This  may  in  part  be  met  by  citing  the  results 
of  some  experiments  of  Winch^  on  school  children  in 
Great  Britain.  The  tests  were  made  by  learning  selec- 
tions from  a  historical  reader,  the  training  consisted 
in  committing  poetry  or  selections  from  a  geographical 
reader.  More  than  one  hundred  children,  from  three 
neighborhoods  of  different  social  standing,  were  chosen 


M.>D.)    gives   the   difference   between    the  other  vahics — the   amount 
that  may  be  ascribed  to  transfer  of  training,  proper. 

PERCENTAGE    OF    IMPROVEMENT   IN   THREE    SERIES 


A.  Immediate  Memory — 
{Auditory) 

1.  Numbers 

2.  Letters 

3.  Nonsense  (D.  tJerman 
words) 

4.  Words 

B.  Committing  to  Memory — 

1.  Nonsense 

2.  Italian  vocabulary 

3.  Poetry  (Schiller) 

4.  Phil,  prose  (Locke) . . , 


K 

and  M. 

I) 

K   aii.i  M   >n. 

Pe 

rcentage 

Pe 

coiitaKB 

PerceiiUite 

59 

4 

or  12* 

+  47 

58 

29 

+  29 

42 

17 

+  25 

30 

28 

+   2 

77 

41 

+30 

60 

52 

+    8 

37 

14 

+  23 

71 

58 

+  13 

Average 20  per  cent 


The  (*)  imlicates  low  record  due  to  poor  |ih)>ical  condition  of  one  lulijir 
int!  ({ives  resvilts  of  the  other  sithjects  without  includini?  this  indi\idu»l. 
K.  and  M.  with  practice  in  intervals  hetween  tests 
D.  with  no  practice  in  intervals  hctweon  tests  (four  subjects) 

'  British  Journal  of  Psychology,  II,  2S4. 


372  Humanistic  Studies 

to  be  subjected  to  the  tests.  Each  class  was  divided  into 
two  groups  of  approximately  equal  mental  attainments. 
One  group,  after  a  test  had  been  made,  spent  four  periods 
in  committing  to  memory  about  one  hundred  words  of 
poetry,  while  the  others  were  engaged  in  doing  sums. 
The  other  class  work  was  the  same  for  the  two  groups. 
On  the  fifth  morning  after,  each  group  committed  a 
second  test  passage.  It  was  found  that  the  children  who 
had  had  the  special  practice  averaged  nearly  10  per  cent 
better  than  those  without  training.  And  when  the  two 
first  divisions  were  again  grouped  with  reference  to  com- 
parative merit,  every  group  with  training  did  better  than 
the  corresponding  group  without;  a  very  striking  result, 
considering  the  small  amount  of  training.  While  these 
experiments  are  very  much  less  complete  and  less  care- 
fully controlled  than  those  of  Ebert  and  Meumann  men- 
tioned above,  they  have  the  advantage  of  confirming 
the  others  on  children  of  school  age,  on  a  larger  number 
of  individuals,  and  on  material  that  is  used  in  actual 
school  practice. 

The  two  investigations,  taken  together,  seem  to  leave 
little  doubt  that  rote  memory  can  be  improved  by  prac- 
tice. Our  original  theoretical  question  must  then  be 
faced:  Are  we  to  interpret  the  results  as  a  proof  of  the 
existence  of  a  faculty  of  memory  that  acts  in  all  the  forms 
of  learning  that  have  been  considered,  or  can  we  retain 
something  of  the  more  modern  theory  that  the  memory 
functions  are  in  some  measure  distinct?  It  must  be 
asserted  that  the  former  alternative  of  a  memory  faculty 
is  not  sufficiently  in  harmony  with  known  physiological 
and  pathological  facts  to  be  accepted,  except  as  a  last 
resort.  The  one  alternative  is  to  assume  that,  while 
there  are  different  memories,  they  either  overlap  in  part, 


Formal  Discipline  373 

and  in  sufficient  measure  to  account  for  our  results,  or 
that  there  are  other  common  elements  of  sufficient  impor- 
tance to  account  for  the  effect.  The  observations  of  the 
subjects  in  the  experiments  of  Ebert  and  Meumann  tend 
to  favor  the  latter  interpretation.  Their  progress  seemed 
to  be  marked  by  greater  capacity  for  attending  to  the 
nonsense  material  or  to  attending  mechanically  in  general. 
Then,  too,  they  acquired  better  methods  of  learning. 
Instead  of  attempting  to  help  themselves  by  extrinsic 
devices,  they  became  wiUing  to  give  themselves  over 
to  the  purely  mechanical  repetition  of  the  material  with- 
out much  thought  ot  the  consequences.  Each  tends  to 
adopt  the  method  of  learning  that  is  most  economical 
for  himself.  This  varies  from  individual  to  individual, 
but  it  could  be  observed  in  each  that  the  method  of 
learning  changed  qualitatively  as  the  exercises  progressed. 
The  persons  tested  took  a  devious  course  toward  the  end 
in  the  early  experiments  and  as  time  went  on  gradually 
eliminated  the  by-paths  that  proved  less  profitable.  It 
would  seem,  then,  that  a  large  part  of  the  training,  as  it 
appears  in'  the  memory  process,  can  be  explained  in  terms 
of  the  acquirement  of  better  methods  of  working  and 
of  a  familiarity  with  the  material  and  processes  that 
makes  relatively  interesting  what  at  first  is  as  uninter- 
esting a  task  as  can  easily  be  imagined.  Ebert  and 
Meumann  were  of  the  opinion  that  in  addition  there  was 
a  training  of  some  common  capacity  that  might  be  made 
to  correspond  fairly  closely  to  memory  as  used  in  the 
popular  sense.  This  does  not  seem  to  me  to  be  a  necessary 
conclusion,  for  no  one  knows  how  the  gain  due  to  these 
secondary  factors  stands  to  the  total  amount  of  improve- 
ment. One  cannot  be  sure,  therefore,  that  all  of  the 
gain  is  or  is  not  to  be  explained  in  terms  of  the  change  in 


374  Humanistic  Studies 

these  capacities  that  are  generally  assumed  to  be  sus- 
ceptible of  training. 

What  explanation  is  to  be  offered  for  the  fact  is  of 
less  importance  than  is  the  fact  itself.  It  seems  pretty 
certain,  if  we  are  to  place  any  confidence  at  all  in  these 
results,  that  memory  as  a  rough  whole  can  be  trained 
by  comparatively  simple  methods  to  a  degree  that  is 
great  enough  to  offer  practical  advantages.  It  also  seems 
that  the  fact  of  training  can  be  explained  in  a  way  that 
will  not  be  out  of  harmony  with  generally  accepted 
principles  of  pathology,  physiology,  and  psychology. 
It  matters  little,  then,  whether  we  still  assert  or  deny 
that  the  training  is  or  is  not  of  memory,  or  is  or  is  not  of 
other  functions  related  to  memory.  What  we  in  every- 
day life  call  rote  memory  does  improve  with  use. 

Slightly  different  is  the  problem  of  the  logical  memory 
or  memory  of  ideas  as  opposed  to  words  or  symbols.  On 
this  problem  there  are  few,  if  any,  technical  experiments. 
Conclusions  must  be  drawn  from  observation  and  from 
general  considerations.  Some  conclusions  on  learning 
of  this  character  seem,  however,  to  be  pretty  thoroughly 
established.  It  is  certainly  true,  so  far  as  common 
observation  extends,  that  one's  memory  for  any  domain 
of  work  grows  as  one's  acquaintance  with  the  field 
increases.  Mathematical  symbols  or  demonstrations 
are  remembered  by  the  mathematician  which  would  be 
forgotten  quickly  and  entirely  by  one  less  versed  in  that 
lore.  The  same  principle  is  evident  in  every  field. 
What  one  already  knows  something  of  one  remembers 
and,  so  far  as  one  can  say  from  observation,  the  ease  of 
remembering  is  pretty  closely  proportional  to  the  amount 
of  knowledge  in  the  particular  domain.  In  this  sense, 
learning  in  one  field  seems  to  exert  an  influence  upon 


Formal  Discipline  375 

other  learning  in  the  same  field,  and  it  is  also  probable 
that  it  makes  easier  learning  in  a  related  field.  Train- 
ing in  mathematics  or  in  chemistry  evidently  aids  in 
some  degree  in  remembering  facts  in  physics;  training 
in  one  language  facihtates  learning  another,  particularly 
if  the  language  be  a  related  one. 

This  fact,  if  it  be  accepted  as  such  on  the  basis  of 
what  I  believe  to  be  general  opinion,  probably  requires 
a  slightly  different  explanation  from  any  that  has  been 
given  for  rote  learning.  Here  apparently  the  increased 
facility  for  learning  is  due  to  the  circumstance  that 
retention  and  recall  depend  upon  the  connections  that 
are  made  with  material  already  known.  When  much  is 
known  already,  there  are  many  points  of  attachment  for 
new  knowledge,  and  many  of  the  attachments  have 
probably  been  already  partially  formed  before  the  par- 
ticular moment  in  question.  The  new,  then,  is  not 
altogether  new,  but  is  in  part  a  new  application  of  old 
knowledge.  And  even  if  in  itself  altogether  new,  it  can  be 
closely  related  to  familiar  matter.  As  a  consequence,  it 
seems  that  learning  anything  carries  with  it  automatically 
increased  capacity  for  learning  everything  that  is  related 
to  it  in  any  way.  Where  the  two  fields  are  closely  related 
the  gain  from  earlier  knowledge  is  great;  where  the 
relation  is  less  close,  the  gain  is  smaller.  In  the  light  of 
the  close  relation  of  facts  of  all  kinds,  h(!  would  be  a  bold 
man  who  would  attempt  to  assert  that  learning  of  any 
kind  would  be  entirely  without  influence  upon  later 
learning  of  any  other  kind.  He  would  also  be  equally 
bold  who  ventured  to  assert,  on  the  basis  of  present 
knowledge,  just  what  fields  of  knowledge  were  most 
closely  related  and  how  much  influence  training  in  one  of 
the  fields  would  have  on  any  other. 


376  Humanistic  Studies 

Besides  this  improvement  in  the  capacity  for  remem- 
bering that  is  due  to  the  acquirement  of  associative 
bonds,  there  are  undoubtedly  habits  of  learning  that 
can  be  transferred  from  one  sort  of  material  to  another 
that  improve  factual  or  logical  learning  in  very  much 
the  same  way  that  similar  habits  improve  rote  memory. 
Habits  of  attention  both  in  general  and  particular  kinds 
of  material  are  undoubtedly  acquired  through  study 
of  any  kind.  Even  the  habit  of  using  books  intelli- 
gently needs  to  be  acquired  in  the  early  stages,  and  once 
acquired,  can  be  transferred  to  other  fields.  Even  more 
important  is  the  capacity  for  selecting  the  important 
points  and  in  properly  knitting  them  to  the  related  facts, 
to  the  facts  and  occasions  that  render  their  recall  desir- 
able. For  most  adult  learning  it  is  essential  to  remember 
the  fact  apart  from  the  language  in  which  it  is  expressed 
and  apart  from  the  particular  connections  in  which  it 
is  first  learned.  All  these  habits  of  easy  and  effective 
learning  can  be  acquired  by  learning  any  sort  of  material 
that  it  is  important  to  remember,  and  once  acquired, 
may  be  transferred  to  almost  any  other  field. 

If  we  return  by  way  of  summary  to  our  original 
theories  as  to  the  nature  of  memory  and  of  the  factors 
that  affect  its  training,  we  may  say  that  we  neither  have 
one  memory  nor  many  that  are  absolutely  distinct. 
Rather  do  we  have  many  memories,  more  or  less  distinct, 
but  closely  associated — with  common  elements.  We  can- 
not train  one  memory  without  training  others.  In  terms 
of  our  comparison  with  the  facts  of  physical  training,  we 
must  find  the  analogy  for  memory  neither  in  one  muscle 
nor  in  many  absolutely  distinct  muscles.  But  as  train- 
ing one  muscle  never  leaves  other  muscles  unaffected, 
so  training  one  memory  is  not  without  influence  on  others. 


Formal  Discipline  377 

It  is  found  that  practice  with  one  hand  increases  the 
strength  of  the  other  hand.  This  is  in  part  no  doubt 
due  to  the  fact  that  the  two  sides  of  the  body  are  so 
connected  nervously  that  it  is  not  possible  to  move  one 
without  moving  the  other  slightly.  There  is  thus  actual 
exercise  for  both  hands  when  one  is  exercised.  In  addi- 
tion, training  in  any  exercise  that  requires  skill  undoubt- 
edly increases  more  general  habits  of  accurate  perception 
and  methods  of  eliminating  useless  movements  that  are 
transferable  to  other  movements  and  movements  with 
other  parts  of  the  body.  So,  too,  with  memory,  in  the 
usual  logical  learning  the  factors  involved  are  in  large 
measure  common  to  memories  of  all  related  subjects. 
You  cannot  be  sure  that  any  fact  is  absolutely  unrelated 
to  any  other,  and  so  far  as  they  are  related,  learning  the 
one  makes  easier  learning  the  other.  In  both  rote  and 
logical  learning  there  are  definite  habits  and  capacities 
of  attending  to  be  acquired,  and  these  may  api)arently 
be  acquired  in  one  field  and  used  in  another.  We  have 
to  do  in  memory,  then,  with  a  large  number  of  fairly 
distinct  physiological  capacities,  but  their  use  has  become 
so  dependent  upon  habits  common  to  the  different 
capacities  that  they  are  functionally  parts  of  a  common 
whole.  Training  one  part  thus  trains  related  parts, 
and  the  whole  in  some  degree.  There  is  at  present  no 
means  of  saying  how  much  training  one  memory  receives 
through  training  another,  nor  is  it  possil)le  to  say  very 
positively  what  memories  arc  more  closely,  what  more 
remotely,  related.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  memory  for 
any  range  of  facts  will  be  trained  more  completely  by 
practice  in  that  field  rather  than  in  some  other,  just  us 
training  in  rowing  is  more  effective  in  that  sport  (ium 
in  football.     Nevertheless,  the  crew-man  is  better  material 


378  Humanistic  Studies 

for  the  eleven  than  a  pianist  or  a  golf-player  or  the  man 
without  training  in  any  athletic  sport.  So  the  man  with 
well-rounded  training  is  probably  on  the  average  better 
trained  for  learning  in  any  field  than  the  untrained  man, 
or  even  than  the  man  with  a  narrow  education  in  any 
other  field. 


III.    THE   RELATION   OF   SPECIAL   TRAINING   TO 
GENERAL  INTELLIGENCE 

CHARLES  H.  JUDD 

University  of  Chicago 

There  have  recently  been  urged  upon  the  attention  of 
American  teachers  a  number  of  experiments  and  statistical 
inquiries  which  are  held  by  their  authors  to  show  that 
training  of  mental  functions  is  always  specific.  Thus, 
it  is  asserted  on  the  basis  of  these  investigations  that 
there  is  no  general  function  of  observation;  there  are, 
rather,  as  many  kinds  of  observation  as  there  are  kinds 
of  facts  to  be  observed.  There  are  no  general  functions 
of  discrimination  or  comparison;  no  general  virtues  of 
neatness  or  good  manners.  All  is  specific.  To  be  pre- 
cise in  arithmetic  means  that  and  no  more;  it  does  not 
mean  to  be  precise  in  baseball  or  even  in  reading  and 
writing. 

My  experience  in  experimenting  with  this  problem 
leads  me  to  believe  that  those  who  have  advocated  this 
doctrine  of  specific  functions  have  had  a  very  limited 
view  of  the  facts  involved,  and  have  consequently  reached 
a  formula  of  mental  organization  which  is  wholly  inade- 
quate. I  shall  report  in  some  detail  experiments  which 
bear  directly  on  the  problem,  and  shall  then  pass  to  the 
theoretical  and  practical  conclusions  which  follow  from 
these  experimental  results. 


Formal  Discipline  379 

The  first  experiment  which  I  have  to  report  is  a  very 
simple  one.  A  person  who  was  to  be  tested  was  seated 
in  such  a  position  that  his  right  hand  and  arm  were  entirely 
hidden  from  view  by  a  large  screen.  Whatever  he  did 
with  this  right  hand  would,  therefore,  be  unseen  by  him. 
On  the  left  side  of  the  screen  and  in  full  view,  nine  differ- 
ent lines  were  shown  in  succession,  and  he  was  required 
to  place  a  pencil  held  in  the  unseen  right  hand  in  the 
direction  indicated  by  the  several  lines  seen  before  him. 
The  errors  made  in  placing  the  pencil  were  accurately 
measured  and  recorded.  A  standard  of  comparison 
was  thus  gained  by  which  all  later  results  could  be  eval- 
uated. The  next  step  in  the  experiment  was  to  train 
the  person  being  tested  to  more  accurate  localization  of 
one  special  line,  which  for  purposes  of  our  description 
we  may  call  No.  5.  With  this  one  line.  No.  5,  the  reactor 
was  given  fuller  visual  experience  and  the  error  which  he 
at  first  made  with  this  line  gradually  disappeared.  After 
this  clear  improvement  with  No.  5  the  original  conditions 
were  restored,  and  the  reactor  was  again  tested  as  at 
first  with  all  nine  lines.  Every  line  in  the  series  was 
affected.  This  means  that  there  had  been  a  transfer 
of  effects  under  the  conditions  of  the  training  described. 

This,  however,  was  not  all.  Some  of  the  lines  had 
shown  in  the  first  series  of  tests  an  error  in  the  same 
direction  as  line  No.  5;  others  showed  an  error  in  the 
opposite  direction.  The  transfer  of  practice  differed 
in  the  two  kinds  of  cases  in  that  those  lines  which  had 
a  like  error  with  No.  5  improved  with  No.  5,  while  the 
lines  which  had  errors  in  the  opposite  direction  to  No.  5 
grew  worse  as  a  result  of  practice  with  No.  5.  The 
transfer  of  practice  was  no  less  real  in  the  case  of  the 
lines  which  increased  in  <!rror  than  in  the  case  of  the  lines 


380  Humanistic  Studies 

which  improved.  Both  kinds  of  cases  show  that  the 
functions  involved  are  interdependent,  and  that  transfer 
of  practice  is  a  complex  process  which  must  be  studied 
from  a  variety  of  points  of  view  if  its  different  modes  of 
operation  are  to  be  fully  understood.  Joint  improve- 
ment is  only  one  of  the  possible  forms  of  transfer;  recip- 
rocal interference  is  just  as  significant  a  type  of  relation 
and  just  as  certainly  a  type  of  transfer  as  is  joint  improve- 
ment. 

The  experiment  was  carried  a  step  further.  After 
practice  with  No.  5,  a  new  practice  series  was  instituted 
with  another  line,  which  we  may  designate  as  No.  2.  It 
was  found  that  the  person  being  tested  was  now  very 
much  less  affected  by  practice  with  line  No.  2  than  he 
had  been  during  the  first  practice  series  with  No.  5. 
The  amount  of  practice  given  with  No.  2  was  much  greater 
in  quantity  and  more  radical  in  type,  but  the  reactor 
remained  relatively  unaffected.  This  means,  of  course, 
that  when  the  reactor  first  came  to  the  experiment  he 
was  open  to  all  kinds  of  suggestions.  He  was  in  the 
habit-forming  attitude;  he  easily  took  on  the  effects  of 
practice.  But  after  the  training  which  he  received  with 
line  No.  5,  he  was  less  capable  of  acquiring  new  adjust- 
ments;  he  was  no  longer  in  the  habit-forming  attitude. 

This  is  a  third  phase  of  transfer  of  practice.  It  is  no 
less  significant  than  joint  improvement  or  reciprocal 
interference,  for  surely  any  influence  which  renders  an 
observer  immune  to  the  effects  of  new  practice  is  not  to 
be  overlooked  in  discussing  the  relations  of  various  forms 
of  experience  to  each  other.  The  closing  up  of  the  possi- 
bilities of  future  practice  is  much  more  important  a  con- 
sequence of  any  practice  series  than  the  direct  transfer 
of  effects  to  other  functions. 


Formal  Discipline  381 

We  can  gain  more  light  on  this  third  type  of  relation 
between  functions  by  bringing  out  the  fact  that  all 
through  the  experiment  under  consideration  the  person 
being  tested  was  kept  in  total  ignorance  of  the  purpose 
and  results  of  the  tests.  He  did  not  know  that  he 
improved  with  line  No.  5,  or  that  he  transferred  the 
effects  attained  with  line  No.  5  to  all  the  others.  When 
he  began  working  with  line  No.  2,  he  did  not  know  that 
he  was  resisting  improvement,  and  consequently  was 
not  disturbed  by  the  absence  of  new  practice  effects. 

A  second  experiment,  which  exhibits  more  fully  the 
effect  of  ignorance  of  results,  is  as  follows.  Two  observers 
were  given  a  series  of  tests  in  the  comparison  of  two 
geometrical  figures.  The  figures  compared  were  complex 
and  were  incorrectly  perceived  because  of  their  com- 
plexity, giving  rise  to  what  is  known  as  a  geometrical 
illusion.  One  of  the  two  figures  was  overestimated; 
the  other  was  underestimated.  As  a  result  of  a  long 
series  of  comparisons,  the  two  observers  ultimately  over- 
came the  tendencies  toward  overestimation  and  under- 
estimation: that  is,  they  learned  to  apprehend  the  lines 
correctly.  They  both  learned  this  lesson  in  about  the 
same  number  of  comparisons,  showing  that  they  were 
both  at  the  outset  equally  capable  of  taking  on  the  effects 
of  practice.  During  the  course  of  the  experiment  one 
observer  was  kept  in  total  ignorance  of  the  results  of 
practice,  while  the  other  was  fully  informed.  Thus 
when  they  entered  upon  the  second  stage  of  the  experi- 
ment, one  had  practice,  but  did  not  know  its  effects  upon 
him.  The  other  had  practice  and  did  know  its  effects. 
The  figures  which  they  were  using  for  comparison  were 
reversed  and  a  second  series  of  tests  began.  When  they 
began  working  with  the  reversed  figures,  both  observers 


382  Humanistic  Studies 

showed  confusion  under  the  new  conditions.  Very  soon, 
however,  the  observer  who  knew  about  the  effects  of 
practice  adjusted  himself  to  the  new  demands  and  rapidly 
overcame  the  illusion.  There  was  in  his  case  a  speedy 
and  advantageous  transfer  of  practice.  The  other 
observer  who  did  not  know  the  effects  of  his  earlier 
experience  showed  a  greater  error  than  at  any  time  in 
the  first  series  and,  what  is  still  more  important,  he 
showed  no  disposition  to  improve.  In  spite  of  the  differ- 
ence in  the  final  outcome  it  should  be  noted  that  the 
practice  gained  in  the  first  series  was  transferred  in 
both  cases.  In  one  case,  it  worked  improvement;  in  the 
other,  it  not  only  worked  against  improvement  by 
increasing  the  illusion,  but  it  also  rendered  the  observer 
incapable  of  rapid  readjustment. 

The  facts  which  I  have  thus  far  cited  are  experimental 
results  obtained  under  rigid  and  accurately  measured 
conditions.  They  are  paralleled  by  facts  which  appear 
in  ordinary  experience,  and  it  will  be  well  to  refer  to  these 
commonplace  experiences  before  we  turn  to  any  final 
formulation  of  principles. 

First,  let  us  take  a  few  cases  of  interference  of  training. 
The  mathematical  prodigy  is  a  person  who  has  become  so 
absorbed  in  number  that  he  has  little  or  no  attention  for 
anything  which  cannot  be  counted.  His  ability  to  use 
number  is  cultivated  at  the  expense  of  all  his  other  pos- 
sible modes  of  thought. 

Again,  the  bookworm  may  become  so  absorbed  in 
reading  that  he  will  withdraw  from  the  observation  of 
nature  and  train  his  bookish  capacities  at  the  expense 
of  all  others. 

The  scientist  who  is  devoted  to  bugs  or  plants  is  pro- 
verbially negligent  of  the  other  facts  which  are  offered 


Formal  Discipline  383 

to  his  eyes.  Even  the  Greeks  made  sport  of  the  philos- 
opher who,  while  looking  at  the  stars,  fell  into  a  well 
which  he  had  not  noticed. 

These  facts  do  not  show  that  there  is  one  faculty  for 
the  observation  of  stars  and  another  for  the  observation 
of  wells;  they  show,  rather,  that  the  faculty  of  observing 
cannot  be  turned  at  the  same  time  in  all  possible  direc- 
tions. If  the  mind  is  full  of  thoughts  about  stars,  this 
will  interfere  with  thoughts  about  wells.  It  is  just 
because  mental  life  is  a  unity  that  it  cannot  turn  to 
everything  in  equal  degree.  I  cannot  read  books  and 
at  the  same  time  look  at  the  sky.  No  one  would  argue 
from  this  that  I  have  one  eye  for  the  reading  of  books 
and  one  for  looking  at  the  sky.  The  simple  fact  is  that  I 
have  one  pair  of  eyes  and  I  can  use  them  as  I  will,  but  if 
I  use  them  in  one  direction  I  must  be  content  to  turn 
them  away  from  many  other  directions. 

Indeed,  the  process  of  mental  training  is  in  many 
cases  one  of  educating  the  pupil  to  turn  away  from 
things.  I  teach  my  child  to  look  at  one  part  of  a  picture 
by  withdrawing  his  attention  from  all  else  on  the  page. 
The  principle  of  selection,  or  concentration  of  attention, 
or  of  disregarding  distractions,  is  the  principle  illustrated 
in  all  these  cases.  So  far  does  this  principle  go  in  sensory 
training  that  when  I  am  intently  looking  at  the  page 
before  me  I  do  not  hear  the  sounds  that  appeal  to  my 
ears.  Does  this  argue  that  my  hearing  and  seeing  func- 
tions are  unrelated,  or  does  it  show  their  intimate  inter- 
dependence? I  submit  that  interference  of  functions 
is  the  strongest  possible  evidence  of  th(>ir  interdependence. 

Turning  to  the  type  of  transfer  which  we  found  in  our 
experiments  when  we  observ(>d  that  sometimes  a  person 
is  less  open  to  improvement  after  training  than  before. 


384  Humanistic  Studies 

we  can  again  find  parallel  facts  in  commonplace  expe- 
rience. Children  who  have  not  acquired  fixed  habits 
of  articulation  imitate  very  readily  the  pronunciations 
which  they  hear  about  them.  We  who  are  adult  and 
have  fixed  habits,  do  not  change  easily.  This  is  amply 
illustrated  in  the  ease  with  which  children  learn  a  foreign 
language,  and  the  difficulty  which  adults  experience  in 
trying  to  articulate  unfamiliar  sounds. 

Another  illustration  appears  in  the  fact  that  the  man 
who,  through  much  experience  in  walking,  has  learned 
certain  methods  of  keeping  his  body  balanced  and  erect, 
does  not  learn  to  ride  a  bicycle  as  readily  as  the  boy 
whose  habits  of  bodily  balance  are  much  less  fully  adapted 
to  the  walking  position. 

Again,  how  often  have  we  heard  music  teachers  and 
wTiting  teachers  say  that  the  worst  pupils  are  those  who 
have  bad  methods.  To  break  up  a  bad  method  is  more 
than  double  the  task  of  teaching  a  wholly  untrained 
child. 

We  might  go  on  multiplying  cases  to  show  that, 
when  training  has  fixed  a  habit,  all  related  activities  are 
less  open  to  education  than  before.  It  is  in  general  the 
absence  of  all  fixed  habits  of  thought  and  action  which 
makes  the  child  such  a  good  subject  for  education.  It 
is  not  because  our  functions  are  separate  and  distinct 
that  we  grow  less  and  less  subject  to  education  as  we  grow 
older.  It  is  because  we  are  dominated  in  all  our  functions 
by  those  activities,  either  of  body  or  of  mind,  which  get 
the  first  and  most  intense  training  in  early  life. 

All  the  facts  thus  argue,  I  firmly  believe,  not  for  a 
discreteness  of  mental  functions,  but  rather  for  a  unity 
and  compactness  of  mental  life,  such  that  if  you  influence 
one  phase  of  a  man's  conscious  being,  you  contribute. 


Formal  Discipline  385 

sometimes  negatively  to  be  sure,  but  none  the  less  surely, 
to  all  the  different  elements  of  his  nature. 

Let  us  turn  from  the  negative  cases  to  some  common- 
place facts  of  positive  influence  of  one  function  upon 
another. 

I  shall  take  at  first  a  very  broad  illustration.  Our 
whole  generation  is  greatly  influenced  in  its  thinking 
by  the  doctrine  of  evolution.  That  doctrine  was  first 
formulated  in  biology,  but  who  would  attempt  to  define 
the  limits  of  its  applications  now?  The  preacher,  the 
historian,  the  political  economist,  the  educator,  have  all 
been  dominated  by  this  generalization  and  have  carried 
it  over  into  their  several  spheres  of  thought  and  action. 

A  second  type  of  illustration  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact 
that  we  all  know  what  is  meant  by  the  phrase,  the  scien- 
tist's attitude.  The  man  who,  through  long  training  in 
the  analysis  of  situations,  has  acquired  certain  general 
modes  of  intellectual  procedure  will  show  himself  a 
scientist  in  the  presence  of  any  emergency,  however 
novel.  Every  new  situation  is  attacked  in  the  fashion 
for  which  his  training  has  prepared  him. 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  this  general  type  of  mental 
reaction  is  inherited  rather  than  acquired.  For  my  part 
I  do  not  see  how  that  changes  the  conclusion  regarding 
the  interrelation  of  mental  functions.  If  one  can  inherit 
a  general  function,  why  should  we  argue  further  for 
discreteness  of  functions?  The  general  characteristic 
certainly  pervades  all  mental  activity,  and  this  is  exactly 
what  we  mean  by  the  positive  co-operation  and  inter- 
relation of  functions. 

Other  illustrations  of  the  same  type  are  easy  to  find. 
It  is  no  idle  fancy  of  popular  observation  that  the  clergy- 
man always  adopts  hal)its  of  l)ehavi()r  and  thought  appro- 


386  Humanistic  Studies 

priate  to  his  walk  in  life.  Indeed,  it  has  been  charged 
that  there  are  certain  mental  habits  and  ways  of  acting 
which  go  with  the  educational  profession.  We  can  have 
a  theory  to  the  effect  that  our  training  as  teachers  is  not 
carried  over  into  our  other  hours  of  life,  and  we  may 
possibly  derive  some  comfort  from  this  theory,  but  it 
will  hardly  change  the  common  view  which  is,  after  all,  a 
very  respectable  generalization. 

I  shall  be  satisfied  with  this  recital  of  facts.  If  we 
chose  other  illustrations  of  transfer  and  generaUzation 
of  practice,  we  might  fall  into  some  of  the  doubtful  cases 
covered  by  the  nebulous  phrase  used  by  those  who  defend 
the  doctrine  of  specialized  functions  when  they  say  that 
certain  specialized  functions  contain  identical  factors  and 
are  related  through  these  identical  elements.  I  confess 
I  do  not  understand  fully  what  they  mean  by  their  refer- 
ences to  identical  factors.  I  feel  certain,  however,  that 
in  the  cases  above  cited  there  can  be  no  single  factor. 
There  is  no  single  factor  in  all  of  the  scientific  man's 
methods  of  thought,  unless  indeed  the  man  himself  be 
the  identical  element. 

I  shall  venture  to  stand  through  the  rest  of  our  dis- 
cussion on  the  facts  which  have  been  adduced.  These 
facts  certainly  justify  the  statement  that  mental  functions 
are  interrelated  and  interdependent  in  the  most  manifold 
ways.  Sometimes  the  training  of  an  attitude  aids  the 
positive  development  of  certain  other  attitudes.  Some- 
times one  function  interferes  with  other  functions. 
Above  all  stands  the  fact  that  every  experience  changes 
the  individual's  capacity  for  new  experiences. 

With  these  conclusions  in  mind  I  believe  we  are  in  a 
position  to  restate  the  problem.  We  can  no  longer  ask 
the  simple  question  whether  training  in  arithmetic  helps 


Formal  Discipline  387 

the  student  in  geography.  To  ask  that  question  and  l)e 
satisfied  with  some  kind  of  a  count  of  cases  where  it 
does  and  others  where  it  does  not,  is  to  touch  the  real 
problem  very  superficially.  Certainly  it  is  true  that  an 
excessive  interest  in  arithmetic,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
mathematical  prodigy,  may  close  up  the  avenues  of 
interest  in  geographical  lines.  Certainly  it  is  true 
that  an  excessive  interest  in  maps  and  descriptions  of 
countries  might  very  conceivably  make  the  solution  of 
abstract  problems  of  number  very  distasteful  to  a  boy 
who  wanted  to  travel  rather  than  count.  If  geography 
and  arithmetic  interfere  with  each  other  at  times,  they 
must  be  related  at  least  negatively,  and  our  inquiry 
must  extend  to  the  consideration  of  such  negative  possi- 
bilities. Furthermore,  the  moment  we  admit  negative 
possibilities  we  reach  one  of  the  radical  objections  to 
settling  this  question  of  transfer  of  training  by  averages. 
If  out  of  one  hundred  boys  there  are  twenty-five  who 
enjoy  counting  and  are  so  much  absorbed  in  that  form 
of  thought  that  they  seriously  neglect  geography,  and 
twenty-five  others  who  are  indiff"erent  to  arithmetic 
because  they  enjoy  reading  about  travel,  and  fifty  who 
are  much  aided  in  the  precision  of  all  their  work  by  their 
arithmetic,  what  will  an  average  of  the  one  hundred  boys 
show  about  the  relation  between  geography  and  arith- 
metic ?  The  first  fifty  with  their  negative  results  will 
counterbalance  the  second  fifty  with  their  positive 
tendencies,  and  our  average  will  seem  to  show  what  is 
not  true:  namely,  that  there  is  no  relation  between 
training  in  arithmetic  and  training  in  geography.  I  can- 
not refrain  from  the  general  remark  that  the  statistician 
who  would  venture  to  assert  a  universal  negative  on  the 
basis  of  an  average  seems  to  me  to  take  himself  very 


388  Humanistic  Studies 

seriously.  I  think  we  are  justified  in  saying  to  him 
and  to  ourselves,  that  the  real  question  here  is  not  one 
which  can  be  answered  by  yes  or  no.  Our  question  is 
not,  Are  functions  interrelated  and  capable  of  influencing 
each  other?  The  vital  question  is,  What  is  the  type, 
and  what  the  degree  of  interrelation?  Our  problem  is 
one  of  analysis  and  not  one  of  classification.  To  find  out 
ivhy  two  functions  conflict  or  co-operate  is  better  than 
to  assert  or  deny  their  relation  in  vague  general  terms. 

There  are  many  productive  educational  problems  of 
the  analytical  type  thus  proposed.  Let  me  take  up  in 
detail  one  of  them.  What  is  the  relation  between  edu- 
cation in  the  theory  of  a  certain  situation  and  education 
through  practical  contact  with  the  situation?  It  is  not 
difficult  to  find  enthusiasts  in  favor  of  practical  training 
as  opposed  to  theoretical.  There  is  the  horrible  example 
of  the  college  graduate  who  knows  the  theory  of  bridge- 
building,  but  makes  very  foolish  blunders  in  the  shop. 
There  is  the  theoretically  trained  pedagogue  who  makes 
a  poor  disciplinarian  and  an  inefficient  instructor.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  consensus  of  human  experience  is  that 
theoretical  training  is  worth  while.  If  the  college  man 
at  first  makes  more  blunders  than  the  man  who  has 
grown  up  in  the  shops,  the  college  man  is  not  unlikely 
in  a  year  or  so  to  find  himself,  and  to  be  able  to  use  his 
theory  very  effectively  in  surpassing  his  practically 
trained  neighbor.  The  notion  that  pedagogical  theory 
is  a  hindrance  in  teaching  gives  way  also  in  face  of  the 
facts.  Our  problem  is  clear.  Why  do  theory  and  prac- 
tice seem  in  some  cases  to  conflict  ?  Why  do  they  seem 
at  other  times  to  co-operate  in  producing  the  highest 
degree  of  efficiency?  And,  when  they  conflict  or  co-op- 
erate, what  are  the  details  of  the  relation  between  them  ? 


Formal  Discipline  389 

With  the  value  of  a  simple  experiment  in  mind,  I  shall 
try  to  reduce  this  problem  of  theory  and  practice  to  a 
very  definite  experimental  basis.  I  am  sorry  that  I  have 
not  been  able  to  work  the  problem  out  more  fully.  Some 
ten  or  eleven  years  ago  Mr.  Scholckow,  now  principal 
of  a  New  York  school,  undertook  at  my  suggestion  the 
experimental  investigation  of  this  problem.  He  did  not 
complete  the  investigation  and  has  never  published  his 
result  or  his  method.  I  later  carried  the  experiment  a 
little  farther,  and  shall  report  on  the  basis  of  my  results. 
I  wish  to  acknowledge  very  fully  Mr.  Scholckow's  con- 
tribution, and  I  secured  his  consent  some  time  ago  to 
the  publication  of  anything  relating  to  the  topic. 

Two  groups  of  pupils  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  grades 
were  required  to  hit  with  a  small  dart  a  target  which 
was  placed  under  water.  The  difficulty  of  hitting  the 
target  arises,  of  course,  from  the  deflection  which  the 
light  suffers  through  refraction.  The  target  is  not  where 
is  seems  to  be,  and  the  boy  must  fit  his  aim  with  the 
dart  to  conditions  which  differ  from  those  which  lie 
knows  in  ordinary  life.  The  amount  of  refraction  and 
the  consequent  displacement  of  the  target  are  capable 
of  definite  theoretical  explanation  before  one  throws 
the  dart.  In  this  experiment  one  group  of  l)oys  was 
given  a  full  theoretical  explanation  of  refraction.  The 
other  group  of  boys  was  left  to  work  out  exp(>rience  with- 
out theoretical  training.  These  two  groups  began  prac- 
tice with  the  target  under  twelve  inches  of  water.  It 
is  a  very  striking  fact  that  in  the  first  series  of  trials  the 
boys  who  kncnv  the  theory  of  n^fraction  and  those  who 
did  not,  gave  about  the  same  results.  That  is,  theory 
seemed  to  be  of  no  value  in  the  first  t(>sts.  All  the  boys 
had  to  learn  how  to  use  the  dart,  and  theory  proved  to 


390  Humanistic  Studies 

be  no  substitute  for  practice.  At  this  point  the  condi- 
tions were  changed.  The  twelve  inches  of  water  were 
reduced  to  four.  The  difference  between  the  two  groups 
of  boys  now  came  out  very  strikingly.  The  boys  without 
theory  were  very  much  confused.  The  practice  gained 
with  twelve  inches  of  water  did  not  help  them  with  four 
inches.  Their  errors  were  large  and  persistent.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  boys  who  had  the  theory  fitted  them- 
selves to  four  inches  very  rapidly.  Their  theory  evi- 
dently helped  them  to  see  the  reason  why  they  must  not 
apply  the  twelve-inch  habit  to  four  inches  of  water. 
Note  that  theory  was  not  of  value  until  it  was  backed 
by  practice,  but  when  practice  and  theory  were  both 
present  the  best  adjustment  was  rapidly  worked  out. 

I  regret  to  say  that  the  experiment  was  not  carried 
far  enough  to  determine  how  long  the  boys  who  were 
without  theoretical  training  would  have  had  to  work 
at  the  problem  of  hitting  the  target,  in  order  to  overcome 
their  confusion  with  every  change  in  the  depth  of  the 
water.  They  did  master  four  inches,  but  were  again 
confused  with  eight  inches.  We  may  safely  appeal  to 
general  human  experience,  however,  to  supplement  our 
results  at  this  point.  Theory  has  always  been  built  on 
the  basis  of  series  of  particular  results.  When  men  first 
observed  the  results  of  refraction  they  were  much  con- 
fused by  them.  Lucretius,  for  example,  is  an  illustration 
of  a  thinker  who  has  no  generalized  theory  of  refraction. 
He  is  typical  of  all  ancient  observers  when  he  reports 
the  apparent  crookedness  of  a  stick  in  water  and  declares 
that  it  is  a  deception  of  the  mind.  Men  could  not,  how- 
ever, be  satisfied  with  this  vague  conclusion.  They 
were  stimulated  by  repeated  experiences  to  attack  the 
facts  more  vigorously  until  finally  a  general  principle 


Formal  Discipline  391 

was  formulated.  This  generalized  experience  we  call 
the  theory  of  refraction.  When  one  group  of  boys  was 
instructed  in  the  theory  of  refraction,  they  were  merely 
given  by  a  short-cut  method  the  best  experience  of  the 
race  regarding  the  way  to  reach  objects  seen  under  water. 
When  the  boys  absorbed  this  theory  they  had  the 
epitome  of  many  experiences.  The  experiment  showed 
that  this  theoretical  knowledge  was  relatively  useless 
in  the  first  series  of  tests:  that  is,  until  each  boy  had 
realized  in  his  own  actual  contact  with  water  what 
experiences  were  discussed  in  the  theory.  The  theory 
is  not  a  substitute  for  direct  experience;  it  is  rather  a 
frame  in  which  experiences  may  be  properly  held  apart 
and  at  the  same  time  held  together.  The  boys  who  did 
not  have  the  theory  had  experiences,  but  one  experience 
got  in  the  way  of  another,  and  there  was  disconcerting 
confusion.  There  was,  to  be  sure,  in  this  confusion  a 
certain  relation,  but  it  was  of  a  type  opposite  in  character 
to  that  which  appeared  in  the  cases  of  the  boys  who  had 
the  right  cue  in  their  theoretical  principle  and  so  put  the 
two  groups  of  experiences  into  the  right  setting. 

Such  an  example  as  this  makes  it  clear  that  every 
experience  has  in  it  the  possibilities  of  generalization. 
Whether  the  generalization  will  be  worked  out  by  any 
individual  is  a  question  of  that  individual's  ability  and 
persistence.  It  is  clear,  however,  that  there  is  nothing 
in  such  an  experience  which  would  lead  us  to  speak  of 
training  as  specific  and  incapable  of  generalization. 

Let  us  turn  from  this  example  to  others  of  a  morc^ 
common  type.  A  boy  is  taught  to  look  for  birds.  Does 
he  become  more  alert  in  looking  for  flowers  and  rocks? 
That  depends  entirely  upon  what  looking  for  birds  nicuiis 
in  the  case  under  consideration.     If  a  boy  is  taught  in  a 


392  Humanistic  Studies 

narrow  way  to  name  birds  and  to  look  for  their  nests, 
with  no  intimation  that  there  is  anything  else  in  the 
world  of  nature  for  which  to  look,  then  it  is  not  probable 
that  he  will  tend  to  generalize  his  attitude  toward  the 
world  sufficiently  to  include  other  observable  facts.  If, 
on  the  other  hand,  a  boy  is  taught  to  open  his  eyes  to  all 
the  facts  of  the  world;  if,  for  example,  he  is  taught  that 
swimming  birds  have  certain  characteristics,  running 
birds  others,  and  that  certain  birds  will  be  found  in  one 
kind  of  an  environment,  other  types  in  other  surroundings, 
then  the  tendency  to  generalize  observation  will  be 
strong.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  looking  for  birds  may  be 
a  narrow  training  in  some  cases,  and  a  very  broad  train- 
ing in  others.  The  most  important  educational  princi- 
ple here  involved  is  not  a  principle  of  special  mental 
functions,  but  the  principle  that  good  teaching  aims  at 
generalizations. 

Again,  if  we  ask  whether  arithmetic  is  helpful  as  an 
introduction  to  algebra,  the  answer  depends  on  what  we 
mean  by  arithmetic.  One  of  the  most  vivid  educational 
lessons  I  ever  learned  came  to  me  when  I  once  undertook 
to  help  some  candidates  for  teachers'  certificates  review 
arithmetic.  I  gave  them  examples,  and  the  question 
they  always  asked  me  was  which  rule  in  the  book  the 
example  belonged  under.  Those  girls  had  a  kind  of 
arithmetic  which  would  not  carry  the  weight  of  any 
algebraical  superstructure.  On  the  other  hand,  I  have 
seen  arithmetic  taught  as  a  method  of  comparing  quan- 
tities in  such  a  way  that  the  transition  to  algebra  could 
not  be  felt  as  anything  but  a  legitimate  fruition. 

There  is  another  way  in  which  I  shall  venture  to  put 
this  matter  of  the  desirability  of  generalizing  training. 
A  teacher  who  has  a  broad  outlook  on  any  field  of  knowl- 


Formal  Discipline  393 

edge  will  make  a  single  piece  of  information  carry  to  the 
student  not  only  a  bare  kernel  of  truth,  but  a  whole  net- 
work of  suggestions  by  which  the  central  truth  connects 
with  the  rest  of  the  world.  Suppose  I  say  to  a  boy, 
Caesar  was  a  great  general.  That  is  doubtless  true,  but 
it  is  a  kind  of  nugget  washed  up  in  its  separate  purity 
and  carried  away  by  a  boy  with  very  little  suggestion 
of  other  possibilities  of  rich  findings.  Now  let  me  say 
instead  that  Caesar  was  a  great  man  who,  living  in  a 
military  age,  achieved  his  greatest  success  as  a  military 
leader.  I  think  we  have  an  idea  which  leads  into  a  whole 
mine  of  truth. 

It  will  be  noted  that  in  this  simple  illustration  I  have 
tried  to  make  it  clear  that  the  teacher  is  not  called  upon 
to  say  to  the  pupil,  this  idea  has  implications.  The  idea 
ought  to  be  given  with  its  implications  present  and 
actively  reaching  out  into  the  world  of  new  experiences. 
To  check  the  legitimate  flow  of  association  in  order  to 
contemplate  the  process  of  association  is  a  mistake. 
The  skilful  teacher  keeps  ideas  moving  without  calling 
attention  to  the  machinery. 

The  qualification  which  more  than  any  other  fits  a 
teacher  to  present  ideas  with  their  implications,  is  the 
qualification  which  prepares  a  teacher  to  look  all  around 
a  fact.  The  teacher  ought  to  see  what  a  fact  is  going  to 
be  used  for  later.  The  child  has  no  perspective;  the 
teacher  should  have.  The  teacher  whose  ideas  are  broad 
can  do  much  to  prepare  the  student  to  see  and  cultivate 
universals.  The  teacher  who  is  narrow  through  little 
training  can  do  much  to  close  the  mind  of  a  pupil  to  the 
possibility  of  transferring  his  culture  to  anything  else. 
The  teacher  who  knows  nothing  beyond  what  he  teaches 
can   only  by   the    rarest    good    chance    make   a   remark 


394  Humanistic  Studies 

which  will  open  the  mind  of  his  pupil  to  new  connections. 
The  teacher  who  is  full  of  the  legitimate  developments 
of  the  ideas  which  he  is  teaching  will  never  limit  his 
students  to  a  narrow  formal  view  of  facts. 

There  are  a  few  very  specific  suggestions  which  seem 
to  me  to  grow  out  of  the  position  which  I  have  attempted 
to  defend  before  you.  Most  of  our  textbooks  are  written 
with  a  division  and  subdivision  of  the  subject  and  a 
finished  nicety  of  definition  which  destroys  all  possible 
links  with  anything  else.  Knowledge  must,  I  am  clear, 
be  divided  into  fine  particles  in  order  to  pass  the  narrow 
gateway  into  the  young  mind,  but  I  never  take  up  one 
of  these  highly  dogmatic  and  completely  subdivided 
textbooks  on  grammar  or  arithmetic  without  a  shudder. 
The  formal  divisions  dominate  us  in  our  teaching  to 
such  an  extent  that  I  have  sometimes  thought  that  the 
statistics  of  the  non-correlationists  are  the  artifacts  of 
our  educational  system.  Our  textbooks  make  boys  and 
girls  learn  in  such  a  way  that  there  shall  be  a  wall  of 
division  between  arithmetic  and  everything  else.  Not 
only  so,  we  even  make  the  intelligent  child,  who  would 
naturally  find  common  characteristics  in  the  various 
processes  which  are  described  within  the  covers  of  a 
single  book,  afraid  to  look  from  one  section  into  the  next. 
I  suppose  you  are  asking  what  can  be  done  about  it. 
This  much  can  be  done,  if  nothing  more.  We  can  have 
reviews  in  our  schools  designed  for  the  specific  purpose 
of  correlating  and  generalizing  knowledge.  If  we  need 
to  divide  knowledge  into  fine  parts  the  first  time  it  is 
presented,  let  us  recognize  with  all  clearness  that  in 
reviews  we  should  not  devote  ourselves  to  going  over  the 
fine  subdivisions,  but  we  should  rather  develop  the 
general  phases  of  experience.     There  is  a  general  phase 


Formal  Discipline  395 

in  every  experience.  To  get  at  it  is  worth  much  time  and 
effort.  If  you  bring  it  out,  the  particular  facts  all  fall 
into  their  proper  relations  and  the  compact  whole  is  a 
substantial  structure,  not  a  mass  of  raw,  detached  mate- 
rials. When  teachers  come  to  realize  the  value  of  reviews, 
I  believe  our  textbooks  will  also  take  on  a  different  form. 
There  will  still  be  divisions,  but  they  will  not  be  so 
formidable  or  so  disintegrating. 

The  second  observation  which  I  wish  to  make  is  this. 
It  has  been  my  experience  that  school  work  drifts  to  the 
precise  and  exactly  markable  answer  and  corresponding 
question.  It  is  so  easy  to  ask  a  good  question  in  rhetoric 
and  so  hard  to  ask  a  good  question  in  literature.  It  is 
relatively  easy  to  have  a  show  recitation  in  Latin  made 
up  of  definite  questions  and  answers  which  can  be  eval- 
uated with  mathematical  precision.  It  is  relatively 
hard  to  make  children  describe  some  of  the  commonplace 
facts  of  the  world  of  nature.  As  a  result  we  drift  into 
the  exact  forms  of  teaching.  We  say  Latin  is  invaluable 
because  it  is  so  precise.  I  think  we  ought  to  ask  whether 
it  is  capable  of  cultivating  powers  of  generalization. 
We  say  that  scientific  studies  have  not  been  formulated 
for  teaching.  For  my  part,  I  find  this  one  of  the  richest 
fields  for  educational  genius  because  it  has  not  been 
trampled  into  lifeless  atoms  by  the  weary  tread  of  gen- 
erations. One  living,  palpitating  truth,  grasped  even 
vaguely,  seems  to  me  better  than  many  isolated  gems  of 
formalism.  If  our  supervisors  and  teachers  could  l)c 
freed  from  the  bane  of  jirecise  evaluation  and  could  appre- 
hend the  significance  of  truths  which  have  broad  impli- 
cations, our  (>du('ation  would,  I  firmly  believe,  make 
inestimably  greater  j)rogress. 

Finally,  I  wish  to  make  in  tiiis  connection  a  plea  for 


396  Humanistic  Studies 

less  dogmatism  in  educational  theory.  The  one  thing 
I  have  tried  to  make  clear  in  this  paper  is  that  a  dogmatic 
answer  to  the  question  of  transfer  of  training  is  totally 
impossible.  Does  nature-study  train  in  observation? 
Does  washing  of  slates  train  in  neatness?  Does  saying 
good-morning  to  the  principal  conduce  to  good  manners 
on  the  playground?  If  there  is  any  dogmatic  answer 
given  you  when  you  ask  these  questions,  put  it  aside. 
There  is  no  single  answer  to  any  one  of  these  questions. 
Teachers  have  become  so  fixed  in  their  habits  of  usitig 
precise  textbooks  and  asking  precise  questions  and 
accepting  precise  answers  that  they  want  precise  peda- 
gogical formulas.  This  is  itself  a  very  good  illustration 
of  generalization  of  a  bad  habit  of  mind.  There  is 
another  and  juster  attitude  toward  educational  problems. 
Every  educational  situation  is  a  new  situation  and  is  full 
of  possibilities.  Will  one  experience  affect  others  favor- 
ably or  unfavorably?  The  answer  is,  the  effect  of  one 
experience  on  later  life  depends  on  the  character  of  that 
experience  and  the  way  it  is  managed.  We  may  make 
of  our  pupils  eager  seekers  after  truth,  or  we  may  make 
of  them  bigoted  little  dogmatists.  What  we  do  will 
depend  very  much  upon  what  we  and  our  interests  are. 
If  we  believe  in  specialized  functions  we  shall  probably 
do  very  little  to  generalize  knowledge  in  our  students. 
If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  have  broad  views  of  the  subject 
we  are  teaching  and  of  our  task  in  teaching  it,  we  shall 
find  very  little  in  practical  experience  to  bind  us  to  the 
narrow  view  that  mental  life  is  made  up  of  water-tight 
compartments. 


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SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

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Return  tliis  material  to  the  lit>rary 

from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


FM-i^81i997 


3  1205  00831  4773 


UC  SOUTHERN  RE 


.,1  iQQtRvf&CILlTY 


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'SA 000  054199   5 


